Sample records for vibration energy harvesting

By scavenging energy from their local environment, portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, radios and wireless sensors can achieve greater run-times with potentially lower weight. Vibrationenergyharvesting is one such approach where energy from parasitic vibrations can be converted into electrical energy, through the use of piezoelectric and electromagnetic transducers. Parasitic vibrations come from a range of sources such as wind, seismic forces and traffic. Existing approaches to vibrationenergyharvesting typically utilise a rectifier circuit, which is tuned to the resonant frequency of the harvesting structure and the dominant frequency of vibration. We have developed a novel approach to vibrationenergyharvesting, including adaption to non-periodic vibrations so as to extract the maximum amount of vibrationenergy available. Experimental results of an experimental apparatus using off-the-shelf transducer (i.e. speaker coil) show mechanical vibration to electrical energy conversion efficiencies of 27 - 34%. However, simulations of a more electro-mechanical efficient and lightly damped transducer show conversion efficiencies in excess of 80%.

By scavenging energy from their local environment, portable electronic devices such as MEMS devices, mobile phones, radios and wireless sensors can achieve greater run times with potentially lower weight. Vibrationenergyharvesting is one such approach where energy from parasitic vibrations can be converted into electrical energy through the use of piezoelectric and electromagnetic transducers. Parasitic vibrations come from a range of sources such as human movement, wind, seismic forces and traffic. Existing approaches to vibrationenergyharvesting typically utilize a rectifier circuit, which is tuned to the resonant frequency of the harvesting structure and the dominant frequency of vibration. We have developed a novel approach to vibrationenergyharvesting, including adaptation to non-periodic vibrations so as to extract the maximum amount of vibrationenergy available. Experimental results of an experimental apparatus using an off-the-shelf transducer (i.e. speaker coil) show mechanical vibration to electrical energy conversion efficiencies of 27-34%.

Recently, micro vibrationenergyharvesters are attracting much attention for wireless sensor applications. To answer the power requirement of practical applications, the design methodology is important. This paper first reviews the fundamental theory of vibrationenergyharvesting, and then discusses how to design a micro vibrationenergyharvester at a concept level. For the micro vibrationenergyharvesters, independent design parameters at the top level are only the mass and stroke of a seismic mass and quality factor, while the frequency and acceleration of vibration input are given parameters determined by the application. The key design point is simply to make the mass and stroke of the seismic mass as large as possible within the available device size. Some case studies based on the theory are also presented. This paper provides a guideline for the development of the micro vibrationenergyharvesters.

This paper deals with an optimization study of a vibrationenergyharvester. This harvester can be used as autonomous source of electrical energy for remote or wireless applications, which are placed in environment excited by ambient mechanical vibrations. The ambient energy of vibrations is usually on very low level but the harvester can be used as alternative source of energy for electronic devices with an expected low level of power consumption of several mW. The optimized design of the vibrationenergyharvester was based on previous development and the sensitivity of harvester design was improved for effective harvesting from mechanical vibrations in aeronautic applications. The vibrationenergyharvester is a mechatronic system which generates electrical energy from ambient vibrations due to precision tuning up generator parameters. The optimization study for maximization of harvested power or minimization of volume and weight are the main goals of our development. The optimization study of such complex device is complicated therefore artificial intelligence methods can be used for tuning up optimal harvester parameters.

Vibrationenergyharvesters scavenge energy from mechanical vibrations to energise low power electronic devices. In this work, we report on vibrationenergyharvesting scheme based on the charging phenomenon occurring naturally between two bodies with different work functions. Such work function energyharvester (WFEH) is similar to electrostatic energyharvester with the fundamental distinction that neither external power supplies nor electrets are needed. A theoretical model and description of different operation modes of WFEHs are presented. The WFEH concept is tested with macroscopic experiments, which agree well with the model. The feasibility of miniaturizing WFEHs is shown by simulating a realistic MEMS device. The WFEH can be operated as a charge pump that pushes charge and energy into an energy storage element. We show that such an operation mode is highly desirable for applications and that it can be realised with either a charge shuttle or with switches. The WFEH is shown to give equal or better output power in comparison to traditional electrostatic harvesters. Our findings indicate that WFEH has great potential in energyharvesting applications.

Vibrationenergyharvesters scavenge energy from mechanical vibrations to energise low power electronic devices. In this work, we report on vibrationenergyharvesting scheme based on the charging phenomenon occurring naturally between two bodies with different work functions. Such work function energyharvester (WFEH) is similar to electrostatic energyharvester with the fundamental distinction that neither external power supplies nor electrets are needed. A theoretical model and description of different operation modes of WFEHs are presented. The WFEH concept is tested with macroscopic experiments, which agree well with the model. The feasibility of miniaturizing WFEHs is shown by simulating a realistic MEMS device. The WFEH can be operated as a charge pump that pushes charge and energy into an energy storage element. We show that such an operation mode is highly desirable for applications and that it can be realised with either a charge shuttle or with switches. The WFEH is shown to give equal or better output power in comparison to traditional electrostatic harvesters. Our findings indicate that WFEH has great potential in energyharvesting applications. PMID:25348004

The combined control and energyharvesting characteristics of an autoparametric vibration absorber consisting of a base structure subjected to the external force and a cantilever beam with a tip mass are investigated. The piezoelectric sheets are attached to the cantilever beam to convert the vibrations of the base structure into electrical energy. The coupled nonlinear representative model is developed by using the extended Hamiton’s principle. The effects of the electrical load resistance on the frequency and damping ratio of the cantilever beam are analyzed. The impacts of the external force and load resistance on the structural displacements of the base structure and the beam and on the level of harvestedenergy are determined. The results show that the initial conditions have a significant impact on the system’s response. The relatively high level of energyharvesting is not necessarily accompanied with the minimum displacements of the base structure.

The transformation of waste vibrationenergy into low-power electricity has been heavily researched over the last decade to enable self-sustained wireless electronic components. Monostable and bistable nonlinear oscillators have been explored by several research groups in an effort to enhance the frequency bandwidth of operation. Linear two-degree-of-freedom (2-DOF) configurations as well as the combination of a nonlinear single-DOF harvester with a linear oscillator to constitute a nonlinear 2-DOF harvester have also been explored to develop broadband energyharvesters. In the present work, the concept of nonlinear internal resonance in a continuous frame structure is explored for broadband energyharvesting. The L-shaped beam-mass structure with quadratic nonlinearity was formerly studied in the nonlinear dynamics literature to demonstrate modal energy exchange and the saturation phenomenon when carefully tuned for two-to-one internal resonance. In the current effort, piezoelectric coupling and an electrical load are introduced, and electromechanical equations of the L-shaped energyharvester are employed to explore primary resonance behaviors around the first and the second linear natural frequencies for bandwidth enhancement. Simulations using approximate analytical frequency response equations as well as numerical solutions reveal significant bandwidth enhancement as compared to a typical linear 2-DOF counterpart. Vibration and voltage responses are explored, and the effects of various system parameters on the overall dynamics of the internal resonance-based energyharvesting system are reported.

Results for the design and testing of an electromagnetic device that converts ambient mechanical vibration into electricity are presented. The design of the device is based on an L-shaped beam structure which is tuned so that the first two natural frequencies have a near two-to-one ratio which is referred to as an internal resonance or autoparametic condition. It is shown that in contrast to single degree-of-freedom, linear-dynamics-based vibrationharvesters which convert energy in a very narrow frequency band the prototype can generate power over an extended frequency range when subject to harmonic, base displacement excitation.

The concept of harvestingenergy from ambient and galloping vibrations of a bluff body with a triangular cross-section geometry is investigated. A piezoelectric transducer is attached to the transverse degree of freedom of the body in order to convert these vibrations to electrical energy. A coupled nonlinear distributed-parameter model is developed that takes into consideration the galloping force and moment nonlinearities and the base excitation effects. The aerodynamic loads are modeled using the quasi-steady approximation. Linear analysis is performed to determine the effects of the electrical load resistance and wind speed on the global damping and frequency of the harvester as well as on the onset of instability. Then, nonlinear analysis is performed to investigate the impact of the base acceleration, wind speed, and electrical load resistance on the performance of the harvester and the associated nonlinear phenomena that take place. The results show that, depending on the interaction between the base and galloping excitations, and the considered values of the wind speed, base acceleration, and electrical load resistance, different nonlinear phenomena arise while others disappear. Short- and open-circuit configurations for different wind speeds and base accelerations are assessed. The results show that the maximum levels of harvested power are accompanied by a minimum transverse displacement when varying the electrical load resistance.

Three-phase transduction affords certain advantages in the efficient electromechanical conversion of energy, especially at higher power scales. This paper considers the use of a three-phase electric machine for harvestingenergy from vibrations. We consider the use of vector control techniques, which are common in the area of industrial electronics, for optimizing the feedback loops in a stochastically-excited energyharvesting system. To do this, we decompose the problem into two separate feedback loops for direct and quadrature current components, and illustrate how each might be separately optimized to maximize power output. In a simple analytical example, we illustrate how these techniques might be used to gain insight into the tradeoffs in the design of the electronic hardware and the choice of bus voltage.

This paper reports the design of an electromagnetic vibrationenergyharvester that doubles the magnitude of output power generated by the prior four-bar magnet configuration. This enhancement was achieved with minor increase in volume by 23% and mass by 30%. The new 'double cell' design utilizes an additional pair of magnets to create a secondary air gap, or cell, for a second coil to vibrate within. To further reduce the dimensions of the device, two coils were attached to one common cantilever beam. These unique features lead to improvements of 66% in output power per unit volume (power density) and 27% increase in output power per unit volume and mass (specific power density), from 0.1 to 0.17 mW cm-3 and 0.41 to 0.51 mW cm-3 kg-1 respectively. Using the ANSYS multiphysics analysis, it was determined that for the double cell harvester, adding one additional pair of magnets created a small magnetic gradient between air gaps of 0.001 T which is insignificant in terms of electromagnetic damping. An analytical model was developed to optimize the magnitude of transformation factor and magnetic field gradient within the gap.

Recently, vibrationenergyharvesting from surrounding environments to power wearable devices and wireless sensors in structure health monitoring has received considerable interest. Piezoelectric conversion mechanism has been employed to develop many successful energyharvesting devices due to its simple structure, long life span, high harvesting efficiency and so on. However, there are many difficulties of microscale cantilever configurations in energyharvesting from low frequency ambient. In order to improve the adaptability of energyharvesting from ambient vibrations, a two degrees of freedom (2-DOF) magnetic-coupled piezoelectric energyharvester is proposed in this paper. The electromechanical governing models of the cantilever and clamped hybrid energyharvester are derived to describe the dynamic characteristics for 2-DOF magnetic-coupled piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvester. Numerical simulations based on Matlab and ANSYS software show that the proposed magnetically coupled energyharvester can enhance the effective operating frequency bandwidth and increase the energy density. The experimental voltage responses of 2-DOF harvester under different structure parameters are acquired to demonstrate the effectiveness of the lumped parameter model for low frequency excitations. Moreover, the proposed energyharvester can enhance the energyharvesting performance over a wider bandwidth of low frequencies and has a great potential for broadband vibrationenergyharvesting.

In this research, a vibrationenergyharvester employing the magnet/piezoelectric composite transducer to convert mechanical vibrationenergy into electrical energy is presented. The electric output performance of a vibrationenergyharvester has been investigated. Compared to traditional magnetoelectric transducer, the proposed vibrationenergyharvester has some remarkable characteristic which do not need binder. The experimental results show that the presented vibrationenergyharvester can obtain an average power of 0.39 mW for an acceleration of 0.6g at frequency of 38 Hz. Remarkably, this power is a very encouraging power figure that gives the prospect of being able to power a widely range of wireless sensors in wireless sensor network.

This paper has disclosed the relationship of vibrationenergyharvester performance with dimensionless force factor. Numerical ranges of the dimensionless force factor have been defined for cases of weak, moderate and strong coupling. The relationships of coupling loss factor, dimensionless force factor, critical coupling strength, coupling quotient, electro-mechanical coupling factor, damping loss factor and modal densities have been established in linear vibrationenergyharvester systems. The new contribution of this paper is to determine a frequency range where the vibrationenergyharvesting systems are in a weak coupling and the statistical energy analysis is applicable.

A vibrationenergyharvester is typically composed of a spring-mass system with an electromagnetic or piezoelectric transducer connected in parallel with a spring. This configuration has been well studied and optimized for harmonic vibration sources. Recently, a dual-mass harvester, where two masses are connected in series by the energy transducer and a spring, has been proposed. The dual-mass vibrationenergyharvester is proved to be able to harvest more power and has a broader bandwidth than the single-mass configuration, when the parameters are optimized and the excitation is harmonic. In fact, some dual-mass vibrationenergyharvesters, such as regenerative vehicle suspensions and buildings with regenerative tuned mass dampers (TMDs), are subjected to random excitations. This paper is to investigate the dual-mass and single-mass vibrationharvesters under random excitations using spectrum integration and the residue theorem. The output powers for these two types of vibrationenergyharvesters, when subjected to different random excitations, namely force, displacement, velocity and acceleration, are obtained analytically with closed-form expressions. It is also very interesting to find that the output power of the vibrationenergyharvesters under random excitations depends on only a few parameters in very simple and elegant forms. This paper also draws some important conclusions on regenerative vehicle suspensions and buildings with regenerative TMDs, which can be modeled as dual-mass vibrationenergyharvesters. It is found that, under white-noise random velocity excitation from road irregularity, the harvesting power from vehicle suspensions is proportional to the tire stiffness and road vertical excitation spectrum only. It is independent of the chassis mass, tire-wheel mass, suspension stiffness and damping coefficient. Under random wind force excitation, the power harvested from buildings with regenerative TMD will depends on the building mass only, not

The objective of this work is to develop MEMS vibrationenergyharvesters for tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS), they can be located on the rim or on the inner-liner of the car tire. Nowadays TPMS modules are powered by batteries with a limited lifetime. A large effort is ongoing to replace batteries with small and long lasting power sources like energyharvesters [1]. The operation principle of vibrationharvesters is mechanical resonance of a seismic mass, where mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy. In general, vibrationenergyharvesters are of specific interest for machine environments where random noise or repetitive shock vibrations are present. In this work we present the results for MEMS based vibrationenergyharvesting for applying on the rim or inner-liner. The vibrations on the rim correspond to random noise. A vibrationenergyharvester can be described as an under damped mass-spring system acting like a mechanical band-pass filter, and will resonate at its natural frequency [2]. At 0.01 g2/Hz noise amplitude the average power can reach the level that is required to power a simple wireless sensor node, approximately 10 μW [3]. The dominant vibrations on the inner-liner consist mainly of repetitive high amplitude shocks. With a shock, the seismic mass is displaced, after which the mass will "ring-down" at its natural resonance frequency. During the ring-down period, part of the mechanical energy is harvested. On the inner-liner of the tire repetitive (one per rotation) high amplitude (few hundred g) shocks occur. The harvester enables an average power of a few tens of μW [4], sufficient to power a more sophisticated wireless sensor node that can measure additional tire-parameters besides pressure. In this work we characterized MEMS vibrationenergyharvesters for noise and shock excitation. We validated their potential for TPMS modules by measurements and simulation.

Stochastic resonance has seen wide application in the physical sciences as a tool to understand weak signal amplification by noise. However, this apparently counter-intuitive phenomenon does not appear to have been exploited as a tool to enhance vibrationalenergyharvesting. In this note we demonstrate that by adding periodic forcing to a vibrationally excited energyharvesting mechanism, the power available from the device is apparently enhanced over a mechanism without periodic forcing. In order to illustrate this novel effect, a conceptually simple, but plausible model of such a device is proposed to explore the use of stochastic resonance to enhance vibrationalenergyharvesting.

Different bandwidth widening schemes of electromagnetic energyharvesters have been reported in this work. The devices are fabricated on FR4 substrate using laser micromachining techniques. The linear device operate in a narrow band around the resonance; in order to tune resonant frequency of the device electrically, two different types of complex load topologies are adopted. Using capacitive load, the resonant frequency is tuned in the low frequency direction whereas using inductive load, the resonant frequency is tuned in the high frequency direction. An overall tuning range of ˜2.4 Hz is obtained at 0.3g though the output power dropped significantly over the tuning range. In order to improve the off-resonance performance, nonlinear oscillation based systems are adopted. A specially designed spring arm with fixed-guided configuration produced single well nonlinear monostable configuration. With increasing input acceleration, wider bandwidth is obtained with such a system as large displacement, stretching nonlinearity comes into play and 9.55 Hz bandwidth is obtained at 0.5g. The repulsive force between one static and one vibrating oppositely polarized magnets are used to generate bistable nonlinear potential system. The distance between the mentioned magnets is varied between 4 to 10 mm to produce tunable nonlinearity with a maximum half power bandwidth over 3 Hz at 0.5g.

Vibrationenergyharvesting is an attractive technique for potential powering of wireless sensors and low power devices. While the technique can be employed to harvestenergy from vibrations and vibrating structures, a general requirement independent of the energy transfer mechanism is that the vibrationenergyharvesting device operate in resonance at the excitation frequency. Most energyharvesting devices developed to date are single resonance frequency based, and while recent efforts have been made to broaden the frequency range of energyharvesting devices, what is lacking is a robust tunable energyharvesting technique. In this paper, the design and testing of a resonance frequency tunable energyharvesting device using a magnetic force technique is presented. This technique enabled resonance tuning to ± 20% of the untuned resonant frequency. In particular, this magnetic-based approach enables either an increase or decrease in the tuned resonant frequency. A piezoelectric cantilever beam with a natural frequency of 26 Hz is used as the energyharvesting cantilever, which is successfully tuned over a frequency range of 22-32 Hz to enable a continuous power output 240-280 µW over the entire frequency range tested. A theoretical model using variable damping is presented, whose results agree closely with the experimental results. The magnetic force applied for resonance frequency tuning and its effect on damping and load resistance have been experimentally determined.

Highway bridges are vital links in the transportation network in the United States. Identifying possible safety problems in the approximately 600,000 bridges across the country is generally accomplished through labor-intensive, visual inspections. Ongoing research sponsored by NIST seeks to improve inspection practices by providing real-time, continuous monitoring technology for steel bridges. A wireless sensor network with a service life of ten years that is powered by an integrated energyharvester is targeted. In order to achieve the target ten-year life for the monitoring system, novel approaches to energyharvesting for use in recharging batteries are investigated. Three main sources of energy are evaluated: (a) vibrationalenergy, (b) solar energy, and (c) wind energy. Assessing the energy produced from vehicular-induced vibrations and converted through electromagnetic induction is the focus of this paper. The goal of the study is to process acceleration data and analyze the vibrational response of steel bridges to moving truck loads. Through spectral analysis and harvester modeling, the feasibility of vibration-based energyharvesting for longterm monitoring can be assessed. The effects of bridge conditions, ambient temperature, truck traffic patterns, and harvester position on the power content of the vibrations are investigated. With sensor nodes continually recharged, the proposed real-time monitoring system will operate off the power grid, thus reducing life cycle costs and enhancing inspection practices for state DOTs. This paper will present the results of estimating the vibrationenergy of a steel bridge in Texas.

Motivation for this paper is the creation of a new kind of (vibration) kinetic energyharvester systems that can effectively transfer environmental mechanical vibrations into electrical energy over a wider frequency bandwidth than conventional devices. This paper presents a potential improvement in the 1DoF vibration transducer class and examining therefore analytically the behavior of such systems using strong nonlinear springs. Then a new 2DoF class of vibration transducer is presented having a strong nonlinear characteristic which is well suited for autoparametric resonance vibrations.

This paper presents a technique of electric energy generation using a mechanically excited unimorph piezoelectric membrane transducer. The electrical characteristics of the piezoelectric power generator are investigated under dynamic conditions. The electromechanical model of the generator is presented and used to predict its electrical performances. The experiments was performed with a piezoelectric actuator (shaker) moving a macroscopic 25 mm diameter piezoelectric membrane. A power of 0.65 mW was generated at the resonance frequency (1.71 kHz) across a 5.6 kOmega optimal resistor and for a 80 N force. A special electronic circuit has been conceived in order to increase the power harvested by the piezoelectric transducer. This electrical converter applies the SSHI (synchronized switch harvesting on inductor) technique, and leads to remarkable results: under the same actuation conditions the generated power reaches 1.7 mW, which is sufficient to supply a large range of low consumption sensors. PMID:16814837

Recovering energy from ambient vibrations has recently been a popular research topic. This article is conceived as a concept study that explores new directions to enhance the performance of such energyharvesting devices from base excitation. The main idea revolves around the introduction of delayed feedback sensitization (or tuning) of an active vibration absorber setup. To clarify the concept, the Delayed Resonator theory is reviewed and its suitability for energyharvesting purposes is studied. It is recognized that an actively tuned and purely resonant absorber is infeasible for such applications. The focus is then shifted to alternative tuning schemes that deviate from resonance conditions. Also called Delayed Feedback Vibration Absorbers, these devices may indeed provide significant enhancements in energyharvesting capacity. Analytical developments are presented to study energy generation and consumption characteristics. Effects of excitation frequency and absorber damping are investigated. The influences of time-delayed feedback on the stability and the transient performance of the system are also treated. The analysis starts from a stand-alone absorber, emulating seismic mass type harvesters. The work is then extended to vibration control applications, where an absorber/harvester is coupled with a primary structure. The results are demonstrated with numerical simulations on a case study.

In this paper the novel design of Galfenol based vibrationenergyharvester is presented. The device uses Galfenol rod diameter 6.35 mm and length 50mm, polycrystalline, production grade, manufactured by FSZM process by ETREMA Product Inc. For experimental study of the harvester, the test rig was developed. It was found by experiment that for given frequency of external excitation there exist optimal values of bias and pre-stress which maximize generated voltage and harvested power. Under optimized operational conditions and external excitations with frequency 50Hz the designed transducer generates about 10 V and harvests about 0,45 W power. Within the running conditions, the Galfenol rod power density was estimated to 340mW/cm3. The obtained results show high practical potential of Galfenol based sensors for vibration-to-electrical energy conversion, structural health monitoring, etc.

A new cantilevered piezoelectric energyharvester (PEH) of which the additional lumped mass is connected to a harmonically oscillating base through an elastic foundation is proposed for maximizing generated power and enlarging its frequency bandwidth. The base motion is assumed to provide a given acceleration level. Earlier, a similar energyharvester employing the concept of the dynamic vibration absorber was developed but the mechanism of the present energyharvester is new because it incorporates a mass-spring system in addition to a conventional cantilevered piezoelectric energyharvesting beam with or without a tip mass. Consequently, the proposed energyharvester actually forms a two-degree-of-freedom system. It will be theoretically shown that the output power can be indeed substantially improved if the fundamental resonant frequencies of each of the two systems in the proposed energyharvester are simultaneously tuned as closely as possible to the input excitation frequency and also if the mass ratio of a piezoelectric energyharvesting beam to the lumped mass is adjusted below a certain value. The performance of the proposed energyharvester is checked by numerical simulation.

Energyharvesting from ambient sources has been a longtime goal for microsystem engineers. The energy available from ambient sources is substantial and could be used to power wireless micro devices, making them fully autonomous. Self-powered wireless sensors could have many applications in for autonomous monitoring of residential, commercial, industrial, geological, or biological environments. Ambient vibrations are of particular interest for energyharvesting as they are ubiquitous and have ample kinetic energy. In this work a MEMS device for vibrationenergyharvesting using a variable capacitor structure is presented. The nonlinear electromechanical dynamics of a gap-closing type structure is experimentally studied. Important experimental considerations such as the importance of reducing off-axis vibration during testing, characterization methods, dust contamination, and the effect of grounding on parasitic capacitance are discussed. A comprehensive physics based model is developed and validated with two different microfabricated devices. To achieve maximal power, devices with high aspect ratio electrodes and a novel two-level stopper system are designed and fabricated. The maximum achieved power from the MEMS device when driven by sinusoidal vibrations was 3.38 muW. Vibrations from HVAC air ducts, which have a primary frequency of 65 Hz and amplitude of 155 mgrms, are targeted as the vibration source and devices are designed for maximal power harvesting potential at those conditions. Harvesting from the air ducts, the devices reached 118 nW of power. When normalized to the operating conditions, the best figure of merit of the devices tested was an order of magnitude above state-of-the-art of the devices (1.24E-6).

Mechanically nonlinear energyharvesters driven by broadband vibrations modeled as white noise are investigated. We derive an upper bound on output power versus load resistance and show that, subject to mild restrictions that we make precise, the upper-bound performance can be obtained by a linear harvester with appropriate stiffness. Despite this, nonlinear harvesters can have implementation-related advantages. Based on the Kramers equation, we numerically obtain the output power at weak coupling for a selection of phenomenological elastic potentials and discuss their merits.

The performance evaluation method is a very important part in the field of vibrationenergyharvesting. It provides the ability to compare and rate different vibrationenergyharvesters (VEHs). Considering the lack of a well-recognized tool, this article proposed a new systematic figure of merit for the appraisement of wideband VEHs. Extensive investigations are first performed for some classic figures for linear VEHs. With the common fundamental information obtained, the proposed figure integrates four essential factors: the revised energyharvester effectiveness, the mechanical quality factor, the normalized bandwidth and the effective mass density. Special considerations are devoted to the properties of wideband VEHs about the operation range and the average power in this domain which are related to the performance target of stable power output. Afterward, this new figure is applied to some literature VEHs and demonstrated to present good evaluations of wideband VEHs. Moreover, it exhibits the ability to point out the improvement information of the concerned VEHs further developments.

The design, fabrication, and characterization of a novel low-frequency meandering piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvester is presented. The energyharvester is designed for sensor node applications where the node targets a width-to-length aspect ratio close to 1:1 while simultaneously achieving a low resonant frequency. The measured power output and normalized power density are 118 μW and 5.02 μW/mm(3)/g(2), respectively, when excited by an acceleration magnitude of 0.2 g at 49.7 Hz. The energyharvester consists of a laser-machined meandering PZT bimorph. Two methods, strain-matched electrode (SME) and strain-matched polarization (SMP), are utilized to mitigate the voltage cancellation caused by having both positive and negative strains in the piezoelectric layer during operation at the meander's first resonant frequency. We have performed finite element analysis and experimentally demonstrated a prototype harvester with a footprint of 27 x 23 mm and a height of 6.5 mm including the tip mass. The device achieves a low resonant frequency while maintaining a form factor suitable for sensor node applications. The meandering design enables energyharvesters to harvestenergy from vibration sources with frequencies less than 100 Hz within a compact footprint. PMID:22622969

This paper studies energyharvesting from heartbeat vibrations using fan-folded piezoelectric beams. The generated energy from the heartbeat can be used to power a leadless pacemaker. In order to utilize the available 3 dimensional space to the energyharvester, we chose the fan-folded design. The proposed device consists of several piezoelectric beams stacked on top of each other. The size for this energyharvester is 2 cm by 0.5 cm by 1 cm, which makes the natural frequency very high. High natural frequency is one major concern about the micro-scaled energyharvesters. By utilizing the fan-folded geometry and adding tip mass and link mass to the configuration, this natural frequency is reduced to the desired range. This fan-folded design makes it possible to generate more than 10 μW of power. The proposed device does not incorporate magnets and is thus Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) compatible. Although our device is a linear energyharvester, it is shown that the device is relatively insensitive to the heartrate. The natural frequencies and the mode shapes of the device are calculated. An analytical solution is presented and the method is verified by experimental investigation. We use a closed loop shaker controller and a shaker to simulate the heartbeat vibrations. The developed analytical model is verified through comparison of theoretical and experimental tip displacement and acceleration frequency response functions.

Over the last decade, vibration-based energyharvesting has provided a technology push on the feasibility of self-powered portable small electronic devices and wireless sensor nodes. Vibrationenergyharvesters in general transduce energy by damping out the environmentally induced relative emotion through either a cantilever beam or an equivalent suspension mechanism with one of the transduction mechanisms, like, piezoelectric, electrostatic, electromagnetic or magnetostrictive. Two major challenges face the present harvesters in literature, one, they suffer from the unavoidable mechanical damping due to internal friction present in the systems, second, they cannot operate efficiently in the low frequency range (< 10 Hz), when most of the ambient vibrationalenergy is in this low frequency broadband range. Passive and friction free diamagnetically stabilized magnet levitation mechanisms which can work efficiently as a vibrationenergyharvester in the low frequency range are discussed in this work. First, a mono-stable vertical diamagnetic levitation (VDL) based vibrationenergyharvester (VEH) is discussed. The harvester consists of a lifting magnet (LM), a floating magnet (FM) and two diamagnetic plates (DPs). The LM balances out the weight of the FM and stability is brought about by the repulsive effect of the DPs, made of pyrolytic graphite. Two thick cylindrical coils, placed in grooves which are engraved in the DPs, are used to convert the mechanical energy into electrical energy. Experimental frequency response of the system is validated by the theoretical analysis which showed that the VEH works in a low frequency range but sufficient levitation gap was not achieved and the frequency response characteristic of the system was effectively linear. To overcome these challenges, the influence of the geometry of the FM, the LM, and the DP were parametrically studied to assess their effects on the levitation gap, size of the system and the natural frequency. For

This paper presents a new interface circuit for electrostatic vibrationenergyharvesting with adjustable bias voltage. An electronic switch is used to modify the circuit configuration so that the harvestedenergy increases the voltage across a biasing capacitor. Decrease of this biasing capacitor voltage occurs naturally due to the circuit imperfections. Such a control of the bias voltage enables to adjust the amount of energy converted by the variable capacitor on each cycle. This feature can be used to optimize the mechanical damping induced by the energy conversion process in order to maximize the harvested power. Another feature of this interface circuit is that it is capable to get high bias voltage whatever the battery voltage with low energy loss.

This paper presents preliminary results of tuning the resonant frequency of two industrial vibrationenergyharvesters. The VEH-450 from Ferro Solutions and the PMG17-50 from Perpetuum were tested using discrete reactive electrical loads. The former could be tuned to +0.5 Hz and -2 Hz from its natural resonant frequency of 50.5 Hz at 0.1g. The latter, however, has a broadband output power spectrum that spans ±10 Hz and its output voltage saturates at 7 Vrms, thereby rendering it un-tunable using the method presented here. A comparison of output power between a tuned VEH-450 and an un-tuned PMG17-50, normalised by harvester weight, shows that the former outperforms the latter only at a tuned frequency of 49.8 Hz. A discussion of a resonant frequency tuning circuit that can be fitted to an existing harvester without making modifications to the harvester is presented.

A piezoelectric buzzer for energyharvesting was investigated. Although an external force was added to a buzzer, a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) unimorph in the buzzer, the ceramic disc diameter, thickness, and capacitance of which were respectively 14 mm, 0.2 mm, and 10 nF, generated resonance vibration. As a result, alternating voltages of around 30 V and a frequency of 5 kHz were observed. When the generated voltages were applied to a LED lamp, new devices such as a “night-view footwear” and a “piezo-walker” were developed. It was confirmed that the piezo-buzzer for energyharvesting utilizing resonance vibration is an effective tool for obtaining clean energy.

Vibrationenergyharvesting is an attractive technique for the potential powering of wireless sensors and low power devices. While the technique can be employed to harvestenergy from ambient and mechanical vibrations, there are several generic requirements independent of the energy transfer mechanism that needs to be satisfied for efficient energyharvesting which are pursued here. For example, most energyharvesting devices developed are based on a single resonance frequency, and while recently efforts are being attempted to broaden the frequency range of the devices, lacking is a robust frequency tunable technique. In this work, a resonance frequency tunable mechanism employing magnetic force/stiffness technique is developed that allows the device frequency to increase or decrease based on the mode (attractive, repulsive) of the magnetic force applied. The developed technique provides the device to tune to approximately +/- 25% of its untuned resonance frequency allowing a wide frequency bandwidth. Further, this technique is developed into a self-tunable technique for autonomous device development. Another generic requirement is to match the electrical damping to the mechanical damping in the energyharvesting system for maximum efficiency. To satisfy this requirement, two independent energyharvesting techniques (piezoelectric and electromagnetic) are coupled through design, resulting in ˜30% and ˜65.5% increase in two different independent devices. Another key requirement is developing MEMS scale energyharvesting devices that will not only promises to enhance the power density but also allows potential integration with wireless sensors as an on-chip power source. Piezoelectric MEMS composite structures along with integrated silicon tip masses are fabricated using standard microfabrication techniques. Spray coating and spin coating techniques were explored to deposit zinc oxide as the piezoelectric material. Commercially available magnets were employed to

Piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvesting is an attractive technology for self-powered wireless sensor networks because of the potential to deliver power to the sensor nodes from mechanical vibration sources in the surrounding medium. Systematic device designs are required in order to increase performance along with materials development of high piezoelectric coefficients and design of circuits with high power transfer efficiency. In this work, we present refined structural and electrical modeling of interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) for piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvesting, followed by parametric case studies on MEMS devices. Differences in geometric parameters including the size of the electrode and the number of IDE fingers for given device dimensions lead to substantial changes in harvesting performance such as capacitance, system coupling, voltage and power. When compared with parallel plate electrodes, use of IDEs results in much higher voltage generation by a factor of ten times while similar power levels are observed for both {3-1} and {3-3} configurations at optimal electrical loading conditions.

Vibration-based electret energyharvesters with soft cellular spacer rings are presented. These harvesters are closely related to recently introduced electret accelerometers; however, their development targets are partially differing. Various harvesters with seismic masses from 8 to 23 g and surface potentials in the 500 V regime were built and characterized and powers of up to 8 μW at about 2 kHz and an acceleration of 1 g were measured. An analytical model is presented which, for instance, allows the calculation of the frequency response of the power output into a given load resistance. Finally, experimental and calculated results are compared.

In this paper, we investigate the use of dynamic structural tailoring via the concept of an Acoustic Black Hole (ABH) to enhance the performance of piezoelectric based energyharvesting from operational mechanical vibrations. The ABH is a variable thickness structural feature that can be embedded in the host structure allowing a smooth reduction of the phase velocity while minimizing the amplitude of reflected waves. The ABH thickness variation is typically designed according to power-law profiles. As a propagating wave enters the ABH, it is progressively slowed down while its wavelength is compressed. This effect results in structural areas with high energy density that can be exploited effectively for energyharvesting. The potential of ABH for energyharvesting is shown via a numerical study based on fully coupled finite element electromechanical models of an ABH tapered plate with surface mounted piezo-transducers. The performances of the novel design are evaluated by direct comparison with a non-tapered structure in terms of energy ratios and attenuation indices. Results show that the tailored structural design allows a drastic increase in the harvestedenergy both for steady state and transient excitation. Performance dependencies of key design parameters are also investigated.

Generating electric energy from mechanical vibration using a piezoelectric circular membrane array is presented in this paper. The electrical characteristics of the functional array consisted of three plates with varies tip masses are examined under dynamic conditions. With an optimal load resistor of 11 kΩ, an output power of 21.4 mW was generated from the array in parallel connection at 150 Hz under a pre-stress of 0.8 N and a vibration acceleration of 9.8 m/s2. Moreover, the broadband energyharvesting using this array still can be realized with different tip masses. Three obvious output power peaks can be obtained in a frequency spectra of 110 Hz to 260 Hz. The results show that using a piezoelectric circular diaphragm array can increase significantly the output of energy compared with the use of a single plate. And by optimizing combination of tip masses with piezoelectric elements in array, the frequency range can be tuned to meet the broadband vibration. This array may possibly be exploited to design the energyharvesting for practical applications such as future high speed rail.

Vibrationenergyharvesting is the transformation of vibrationenergy to electrical energy. The motivation of this work is to use vibrationenergyharvesting to power wireless sensors that could be used in inaccessible or hostile environments to transmit information for condition health monitoring. Although considerable work has been done in the area of energyharvesting, there is still a demand for making a robust and small vibrationenergyharvesters from random excitations in a real environment that can produce a reliable amount of energy. Parametrically excited harvesters can have time-varying stiffness. Parametric amplification is used to tune vibrationenergyharvesters to maximize energy gains at system superharmonics, often at twice the first natural frequency. In this paper the parametrically excited harvester with cubic and cubic parametric nonlinearity is introduced as a novel work. The advantages of having cubic and cubic nonlinearity are explained theoretically and experimentally.

This letter introduces a piezomagnetoelastic device for substantial enhancement of piezoelectric power generation in vibrationenergyharvesting. Electromechanical equations describing the nonlinear system are given along with theoretical simulations. Experimental performance of the piezomagnetoelastic generator exhibits qualitative agreement with the theory, yielding large-amplitude periodic oscillations for excitations over a frequency range. Comparisons are presented against the conventional case without magnetic buckling and superiority of the piezomagnetoelastic structure as a broadband electric generator is proven. The piezomagnetoelastic generator results in a 200% increase in the open-circuit voltage amplitude (hence promising an 800% increase in the power amplitude).

Extracting energy from ambient vibration to power wireless sensor nodes has been an attractive area of research, particularly in the automotive monitoring field. This article reports the design, analysis and testing of a vibrationenergyharvesting device based on a miniature asymmetric air-spaced cantilever. The developed design offers high power density, and delivers electric power that is sufficient to support most wireless sensor nodes for structural health monitoring (SHM) applications. The optimized design underwent three evolutionary steps, starting from a simple cantilever design, going through an air-spaced cantilever, and ending up with an optimized air-spaced geometry with boosted power density level. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was used as an initial tool to compare the three geometries' stiffness (K), output open-circuit voltage (Vave), and average normal strain in the piezoelectric transducer (εave) that directly affect its output voltage. Experimental tests were also carried out in order to examine the energyharvesting level in each of the three designs. The experimental results show how to boost the power output level in a thin air-spaced cantilever beam for energy within the same space envelope. The developed thin air-spaced cantilever (8.37 cm3), has a maximum power output of 2.05 mW (H = 29.29 μJ/cycle). PMID:24366177

Extracting energy from ambient vibration to power wireless sensor nodes has been an attractive area of research, particularly in the automotive monitoring field. This article reports the design, analysis and testing of a vibrationenergyharvesting device based on a miniature asymmetric air-spaced cantilever. The developed design offers high power density, and delivers electric power that is sufficient to support most wireless sensor nodes for structural health monitoring (SHM) applications. The optimized design underwent three evolutionary steps, starting from a simple cantilever design, going through an air-spaced cantilever, and ending up with an optimized air-spaced geometry with boosted power density level. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was used as an initial tool to compare the three geometries' stiffness (K), output open-circuit voltage (V(ave)), and average normal strain in the piezoelectric transducer (ε(ave)) that directly affect its output voltage. Experimental tests were also carried out in order to examine the energyharvesting level in each of the three designs. The experimental results show how to boost the power output level in a thin air-spaced cantilever beam for energy within the same space envelope. The developed thin air-spaced cantilever (8.37 cm3), has a maximum power output of 2.05 mW (H = 29.29 μJ/cycle). PMID:24366177

This paper reports on an electrostatic MEMS vibrationenergyharvester with gapclosing interdigitated electrodes, designed for and tested on HVAC air ducts. The device is fabricated on SOI wafers using a custom microfabrication process. A dual-level physical stopper system is implemented in order to control the minimum gap between the electrodes and maximize the power output. It utilizes cantilever beams to absorb a portion of the impact energy as the electrodes approach the impact point, and a film of parylene with nanometer thickness deposited on the electrode sidewalls, which defines the absolute minimum gap and provides electrical insulation. The fabricated device was first tested on a vibration shaker to characterize its resonant behavior. The device exhibits spring hardening behavior due to impacts with the stoppers and spring softening behavior with increasing voltage bias. Testing was carried out on HVAC air duct vibrating with an RMS acceleration of 155 mgRMS and a primary frequency of 60 Hz with a PSD of 7.15·10-2 g2/Hz. The peak power measured is 12nW (0.6 nW RMS) with a PSD of 6.9·10-11 W/Hz at 240 Hz (four times of the primary frequency of 60 Hz), which is the highest output reported for similar vibration conditions and biasing voltages.

The triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), a unique technology for harvesting ambient mechanical energy based on the triboelectric effect, has been proven to be a cost-effective, simple, and robust approach for self-powered systems. However, a general challenge is that the output current is usually low. Here, we demonstrated a rationally designed TENG with integrated rhombic gridding, which greatly improved the total current output owing to the structurally multiplied unit cells connected in parallel. With the hybridization of both the contact-separation mode and sliding electrification mode among nanowire arrays and nanopores fabricated onto the surfaces of two contact plates, the newly designed TENG produces an open-circuit voltage up to 428 V, and a short-circuit current of 1.395 mA with the peak power density of 30.7 W/m(2). Relying on the TENG, a self-powered backpack was developed with a vibration-to-electric energy conversion efficiency up to 10.62(±1.19) %. And it was also demonstrated as a direct power source for instantaneously lighting 40 commercial light-emitting diodes by harvesting the vibrationenergy from natural human walking. The newly designed TENG can be a mobile power source for field engineers, explorers, and disaster-relief workers. PMID:24180642

To supply power to wireless sensor networks, a type of broadband electromagnetic vibrationenergyharvester (VEH) using bistable vibration scavenging structure is proposed. It consists of a planar spring, an electromagnetic transducer with an annular magnetic circuit, and a coil assembly with a ferrite bobbin inside. A nonlinear magnetic force respecting to the relative displacement is generated by the ferrite bobbin, and to broaden the working frequency bandwidth of the VEH. Moreover, the ferrite bobbin increases the magnetic flux linkage gradient of the coil assembly in its moving region, and further to improve its output voltage. The dynamic behaviors of the VEH are analyzed and predicted by finite element analysis and ODE calculation. Validation experiments are carried out and show that the VEH can harvest high energy in a relatively wide excitation frequency band. The further test shows that the load power of the VEH with a load resistor of 90Ω can reach 10mW level in a wide frequency bandwidth when the acceleration level of the harmonic excitation is 1g. It can ensure the intermittent work of many sensors as well as wireless communication modules at least.

Piezoelectret films are prepared by modification of the microstructure of polypropylene foam sheets cross-linked by electronic irradiation (IXPP), followed by proper corona charging. Young's modulus, relative permittivity, and electromechanical coupling coefficient of the fabricated films, determined by dielectric resonance spectra, are about 0.7 MPa, 1.6, and 0.08, respectively. Dynamic piezoelectric d33 coefficients up to 650 pC/N at 200 Hz are achieved. The figure of merit (FOM, d33 ṡ g33) for a more typical d33 value of 400 pC/N is about 11.2 GPa-1. Vibration-based energyharvesting with one-layer and two-layer stacks of these films is investigated at various frequencies and load resistances. At an optimum load resistance of 9 MΩ and a resonance frequency of 800 Hz, a maximum output power of 120 μW, referred to the acceleration g due to gravity, is obtained for an energyharvester consisting of a one-layer IXPP film with an area of 3.14 cm2 and a seismic mass of 33.7 g. The output power can be further improved by using two-layer stacks of IXPP films in electric series. IXPP energyharvesters could be used to energize low-power electronic devices, such as wireless sensors and LED lights.

Piezoelectret films are prepared by modification of the microstructure of polypropylene foam sheets cross-linked by electronic irradiation (IXPP), followed by proper corona charging. Young’s modulus, relative permittivity, and electromechanical coupling coefficient of the fabricated films, determined by dielectric resonance spectra, are about 0.7 MPa, 1.6, and 0.08, respectively. Dynamic piezoelectric d{sub 33} coefficients up to 650 pC/N at 200 Hz are achieved. The figure of merit (FOM, d{sub 33} ⋅ g{sub 33}) for a more typical d{sub 33} value of 400 pC/N is about 11.2 GPa{sup −1}. Vibration-based energyharvesting with one-layer and two-layer stacks of these films is investigated at various frequencies and load resistances. At an optimum load resistance of 9 MΩ and a resonance frequency of 800 Hz, a maximum output power of 120 μW, referred to the acceleration g due to gravity, is obtained for an energyharvester consisting of a one-layer IXPP film with an area of 3.14 cm{sup 2} and a seismic mass of 33.7 g. The output power can be further improved by using two-layer stacks of IXPP films in electric series. IXPP energyharvesters could be used to energize low-power electronic devices, such as wireless sensors and LED lights.

A unified approximation method is derived to illustrate the effect of electro-mechanical coupling on vibration-based energyharvesting systems caused by variations in damping ratio and excitation frequency of the mechanical subsystem. Vibrationalenergyharvesters are electro-mechanical systems that generate power from the ambient oscillations. Typically vibration-based energyharvesters employ a mechanical subsystem tuned to resonate with ambient oscillations. The piezoelectric or electromagnetic coupling mechanisms utilized in energyharvesters, transfers some energy from the mechanical subsystem and converts it to an electric energy. Recently the focus of energyharvesting community has shifted toward nonlinear energyharvesters that are less sensitive to the frequency of ambient vibrations. We consider the general class of hybrid energyharvesters that use both piezoelectric and electromagnetic energyharvesting mechanisms. Through using perturbation methods for low amplitude oscillations and numerical integration for large amplitude vibrations we establish a unified approximation method for linear, softly nonlinear, and bi-stable nonlinear energyharvesters. The method quantifies equivalent changes in damping and excitation frequency of the mechanical subsystem that resembles the backward coupling from energyharvesting. We investigate a novel nonlinear hybrid energyharvester as a case study of the proposed method. The approximation method is accurate, provides an intuitive explanation for backward coupling effects and in some cases reduces the computational efforts by an order of magnitude.

This work presents a novel vibration piezoelectric energyharvester, which is a micro piezoelectric cantilever with multi-beam. The characteristics of the PZT (Pb(Zr{sub 0.53}Ti{sub 0.47})O{sub 3}) thin film were measured; XRD (X-ray diffraction) pattern and AFM (Atomic Force Microscope) image of the PZT thin film were measured, and show that the PZT (Pb(Zr{sub 0.53}Ti{sub 0.47})O{sub 3}) thin film is highly (110) crystal oriented; the leakage current is maintained in nA magnitude, the residual polarisation Pr is 37.037 μC/cm{sup 2}, the coercive field voltage Ec is 27.083 kV/cm, and the piezoelectric constant d{sub 33} is 28 pC/N. In order to test the dynamic performance of the energyharvester, a new measuring system was set up. The maximum output voltage of the single beam of the multi-beam can achieve 80.78 mV under an acceleration of 1 g at 260 Hz of frequency; the maximum output voltage of the single beam of the multi-beam is almost 20 mV at 1400 Hz frequency. .

This article investigates a horizontal diamagnetic levitation (HDL) system for vibrationenergyharvesting. In this configuration, two large magnets, alias lifting magnets, are arranged co-axially at a distance such that in between them a magnet, alias floating magnet, is passively levitated at a laterally offset equilibrium position. The levitation is stabilized in the horizontal direction by two diamagnetic plates made of pyrolytic graphite placed on each side of the floating magnet. This HDL configuration permits large amplitude vibration of the floating magnet and exploits the ability to tailor the geometry to meet specific applications due to its frequency tuning capability. Theoretical modeling techniques are discussed followed by an experimental setup to validate it. At an input root mean square (RMS) acceleration of 0.0434 m/s2 (0.0044 grms) and at a resonant frequency of 1.2 Hz, the prototype generated a RMS power of 3.6 μW with an average system efficiency of 1.93%. Followed by the validation, parametric studies on the geometry of the components are undertaken to show that with the optimized parameters the efficiency can be further enhanced.

The paper is devoted to a novel study of monophase MEMS electrostatic VibrationEnergyHarvester (e-VEH) with conditioning circuit based on Bennet's doubler. Unlike the majority of conditioning circuits that charge a power supply, the circuit based on Bennet's doubler is characterized by the absence of switches requiring additional control electronics, and is free from hardly compatible with batch fabrication process inductive elements. Our experiment with a 0.042 cm3 batch fabricated MEMS e-VEH shows that a pre-charged capacitor as a power supply causes a voltage increase, followed by a saturation which was not reported before. This saturation is due to the nonlinear dynamics of the system and the electromechanical damping that is typical for MEMS. It has been found that because of that coupled behavior there exists an optimal power supply voltage at which output power is maximum. At 187 Hz / 4 g external vibrations the system is shown to charge a 12 V supply with a output power of 1.8 μW.

The design of vibrationenergyharvesters (VEHs) is highly dependent upon the characteristics of the environmental vibrations present in the intended application. VEHs can be linear resonant systems tuned to particular frequencies or nonlinear systems with either bistable operation or a Duffing-type response. This paper provides detailed vibration data from a range of applications, which has been made freely available for download through the EnergyHarvesting Network’s online data repository. In particular, this research shows that simulation is essential in designing and selecting the most suitable vibrationenergyharvester for particular applications. This is illustrated through C-based simulations of different types of VEHs, using real vibration data from a diesel ferry engine, a combined heat and power pump, a petrol car engine and a helicopter. The analysis shows that a bistable energyharvester only has a higher output power than a linear or Duffing-type nonlinear energyharvester with the same Q-factor when it is subjected to white noise vibration. The analysis also indicates that piezoelectric transduction mechanisms are more suitable for bistable energyharvesters than electromagnetic transduction. Furthermore, the linear energyharvester has a higher output power compared to the Duffing-type nonlinear energyharvester with the same Q factor in most cases. The Duffing-type nonlinear energyharvester can generate more power than the linear energyharvester only when it is excited at vibrations with multiple peaks and the frequencies of these peaks are within its bandwidth. Through these new observations, this paper illustrates the importance of simulation in the design of energyharvesting systems, with particular emphasis on the need to incorporate real vibration data.

Formal journal article Experimental analysis of a piezoelectric energyharvesting system for harmonic, random, and sine on random vibration Abstract: Harvesting power with a piezoelectric vibration powered generator using a full-wave rectifier conditioning circuit is experimentally compared for varying sinusoidal, random and sine on random (SOR) input vibration scenarios. Additionally, the implications of source vibration characteristics on harvester design are discussed. Studies in vibrationharvesting have yielded numerous alternatives for harvesting electrical energy from vibrations but piezoceramics arose as the most compact, energy dense means of energy transduction. The rise in popularity of harvestingenergy from ambient vibrations has made piezoelectric generators commercially available. Much of the available literature focuses on maximizing harvested power through nonlinear processing circuits that require accurate knowledge of generator internal mechanical and electrical characteristics and idealization of the input vibration source, which cannot be assumed in general application. In this manuscript, variations in source vibration and load resistance are explored for a commercially available piezoelectric generator. We characterize the source vibration by its acceleration response for repeatability and transcription to general application. The results agree with numerical and theoretical predictions for in previous literature that load optimal resistance varies with transducer natural frequency and source type, and the findings demonstrate that significant gains are seen with lower tuned transducer natural frequencies for similar source amplitudes. Going beyond idealized steady state sinusoidal and simplified random vibration input, SOR testing allows for more accurate representation of real world ambient vibration. It is shown that characteristic interactions from more complex vibrational sources significantly alter power generation and power processing

This paper establishes coupling loss factor of linear vibrationenergyharvesting systems in a framework of statistical energy analysis under parameter variations and random excitations. The new contributions of this paper are to define the numerical ranges of the dimensionless force factor for the weak, moderate and strong coupling and to study the connections of dimensionless force factor, coupling loss factor, coupling quotient, critical coupling strength, electro-mechanical coupling factor, damping loss factor and modal densities in linear vibrationenergyharvesting systems. The motivation of this paper is to enable statistical energy analysis of linear vibrationenergyharvesting systems for reliable performance predictions and design optimisation under parameter variations of materials and manufacturing processes and random ambient environmental excitations.

In this study, a dimensionless analysis method is proposed to predict the output voltage and harvested power for a 2DOF vibrationenergyharvesting system. This method allows us to compare the harvesting power and efficiency of the 2DOF vibrationenergyharvesting system and to evaluate the harvesting system performance regardless the sizes or scales. The analysis method is a hybrid of time domain simulation and frequency response analysis approaches, which would be a useful tool for parametric study, design and optimisation of a 2DOF piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvester. In a case study, a quarter car suspension model with a piezoelectric material insert is chosen to be studied. The 2DOF vibrationenergyharvesting system could potentially be applied in a vehicle to convert waste or harmful ambient vibrationenergy into electrical energy for charging the battery. Especially for its application in a hybrid vehicle or an electrical vehicle, the 2DOF vibrationenergyharvesting system could improve charge mileage, comfort and reliability.

A vibrationenergyharvesting generator was studied in the present research using point-defect phononic crystal with piezoelectric material. By removing a rod from a perfect phononic crystal, a resonant cavity was formed. The elastic waves in the range of gap frequencies were all forbidden in any direction, while the waves with resonant frequency were localized and enhanced in the resonant cavity. The collected vibrationenergy was converted into electric energy by putting a polyvinylidene fluoride film in the middle of the defect. This structure can be used to simultaneously realize both vibration damping and broad-distributed vibrationenergyharvesting.

We propose a vibrationenergyharvester consisting of an auxiliary frequency-tuned mass unit and a piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvesting unit for enhancing output power. The proposed integrated system is so configured that its out-of-phase mode can appear at the lowest eigenfrequency unlike in the conventional system using a tuned unit. Such an arrangement makes the resulting system distinctive: enhanced output power at or near the target operating frequency and very little eigenfrequency separation, not observed in conventional eigenfrequency-tuned vibrationenergyharvesters. The power enhancement of the proposed system is theoretically examined with and without tip mass normalization or footprint area normalization.

This paper presents a low frequency vibrationenergyharvester with contact based frequency up-conversion and hybrid electromagnetic–piezoelectric transduction. An electromagnetic generator is proposed as a power source for low power wearable electronic devices, while a second piezoelectric generator is investigated as a potential power source for a power conditioning circuit for the electromagnetic transducer output. Simulations and experiments are conducted in order to verify the behaviour of the device under harmonic as well as wide-band excitations across two key design parameters—the length of the piezoelectric beam and the excitation frequency. Experimental results demonstrated that the device achieved a power output between 25.5 and 34 μW at an root mean squared (rms) voltage level between 16 and 18.5 mV for the electromagnetic transducer in the excitation frequency range of 3–7 Hz, while the output power of the piezoelectric transducer ranged from 5 to 10.5 μW with a minimum peak-to-peak output voltage of 6 V. A multivariate model validation was performed between experimental and simulation results under wide-band excitation in terms of the rms voltage outputs of the electromagnetic and piezoelectric transducers, as well as the peak-to-peak voltage output of the piezoelectric transducer, and it is found that the experimental data fit the model predictions with a minimum probability of 63.4% across the parameter space.

An electromagnetic energyharvesting device, which converts a translational base motion into a rotational motion by using a rigid bar having a moving mass pivoted on a hinged point with a power spring, has been recently developed for use of civil engineering structures having low natural frequencies. The device utilizes the relative motion between moving permanent magnets and a fixed solenoid coil in order to harvest electrical power. In this study, the performance of the device is enhanced by introducing a rotational-type generator at a hinged point. In addition, a mechanical stopper, which makes use of an auxiliary energyharvesting part to further improve the efficiency, is incorporated into the device. The effectiveness of the proposed hybrid energyharvesting device based on electromagnetic mechanism is verified through a series of laboratory tests.

A frequency response analysis has been conducted for a single degree of freedom vibrationenergyharvester connected to four different interface circuits. The performance and characteristics of both electromagnetic and piezoelectric harvesters have been analysed and compared. The main research outcome is the disclosure of similarity and duality of the electromagnetic and piezoelectric harvesters with different interface circuits. The contribution of this paper is to provide a new method to identify a vibrationenergyharvester with the best interface circuit and the most stable performance.

In this study, a high frequency piezoelectric energyharvester converted from the human low vibrated motion energy was newly developed. This hybrid energyharvester consists of the unimorph piezoelectric cantilever, the pendulum and a pair of permanent magnets. One magnet was attached at the edge of cantilever, and the counterpart magnet at the edge of pendulum. The mechanical energy provided through the human walking motion, which is a typical ubiquitous existence of vibration, is converted to the electric energy via the piezoelectric unimorph cantilever vibration. At first, we studied the energy convert mechanism and analyze the performance of novel energyharvester, where the resonance free vibration of unimorph piezoelectric cantilever generated a high electric power. Next, we equipped the counterpart permanent magnet at the edge of pendulum, which vibrates with a very low frequency caused by the human walking. Then the counterpart magnet was set at the edge of unimorph piezoelectric cantilever, which vibrated with a high frequency. This low-to-high frequency convert "dual vibration system" can be characterized as an enhanced energyharvester. We examined and obtained average values of voltage and power in this system, as 8.31 mV and 0.33 μW. Those results show the possibility to apply for the energyharvester in the portable and implantable Bio-MEMS devices.

Vibrationalenergyharvesting devices are oftentimes constructed in a manner identical to classical tuned-massdampers used in vibration control applications. However, many applications and models in past work assume that the harvesters will have negligible influence on the host structure (e.g. harvesters on a bridge). In contrast, this work adopts the perspective that the energyharvester is analogous to an electromechanical vibration absorber, attenuating the structural vibrations via a dominant mechanical influence while converting the absorbed energy into electric power. One embodiment of a device serving these two purposes-passive vibration attenuation and energyharvesting-is introduced. The device utilizes a distributed piezoelectric spring layer such that as the spring is strained between the top mass layer and the vibrating host structure the piezoelectric spring generates a voltage potential across its electrodes. Two experimental studies are detailed which investigate the capability for energyharvestingvibration absorbers to meet both goals. It is found that achievement of both objectives may require compromise but with proper device design still yields a viable electrical output.

We introduce a design with dual resonant structure which can harvestenergy from random vibration sources at low frequency range. The dual resonant structure consists of two spring-mass subsystems with different frequency responses, which exhibit strong coupling and broad bandwidth when the two masses collide with each other. Experiments with piezoelectric elements show that the energyharvesting device with dual resonant structure can generate higher power output than the sum of the two separate devices from random vibration sources.

A novel piezoelectric energyharvester with a multi-mode dynamic magnifier, which is capable of significantly increasing the bandwidth and the energyharvested from the ambient vibration, is proposed and investigated in this paper. The design comprises a multi-mode intermediate beam with a tip mass, called a ‘dynamic magnifier’, and an ‘energyharvesting beam’ with a tip mass. The piezoelectric film is adhered to the harvesting beam to harvest the vibrationenergy. By properly designing the parameters, such as the length, width and thickness of the two beams and the weight of the two tip masses, we can magnify the motion virtually in all the resonance frequencies of the energyharvesting beam, in a similar way as designing a new beam-type tuned mass damper (TMD) to damp the resonance frequencies of all the modes of the primary beam. Theoretical analysis, finite element simulation, and the experiment study are carried out. The results show that voltage produced by the harvesting beam is amplified for efficient energyharvesting over a broader frequency range, while the peaks of the first three modes of the primary beam can be effectively mitigated simultaneously. The experiment demonstrates 25.5 times more energyharvesting capacity than the conventional cantilever type harvester in the frequency range 3-300 Hz, and 100-1000 times more energy around all the first three resonances of the harvesting beam.

Fundamental studies in vibrationalenergyharvesting consider the electromechanically coupled devices to be excited by uniform base vibration. Since many harvester devices are mass-spring systems, there is a clear opportunity to exploit the mechanical resonance in a fashion identical to tuned mass dampers to simultaneously suppress the vibration of the host structure via reactive forces while converting the ‘absorbed’ vibration into electrical power. This paper presents a general analytical model for the coupled electro-elastic dynamics of a vibrating panel to which distributed energyharvesting devices are attached. One such device is described which employs a corrugated piezoelectric spring layer. The model is validated by comparison to measured elastic and electric frequency response functions. Tests on an excited panel show that the device, contributing 1% additional mass to the structure, concurrently attenuates the lowest panel mode accelerance by >20 dB while generating 0.441 µW for a panel drive acceleration of 3.29 m s-2. Adjustment of the load resistance connected to the piezoelectric spring layer verifies the analogy between the present harvester device and an electromechanically stiffened and damped vibration absorber. The results show that maximum vibration suppression and energyharvesting objectives occur for nearly the same load resistance in the harvester circuit.

This paper presents a new class of highly efficient piezoelectric based energyharvesting power sources for mounting on platforms that vibrate at very low frequencies as compared to the frequencies at which energy can be efficiently harvested using piezoelectric elements . These energyharvesting power sources have a very simple design and do not require accurate tuning for each application to match the frequency of the platform vibration. The developed method of harvesting mechanical energy and converting it to electrical energy overcomes problems that are usually encountered with harvestingenergy from low frequency vibration of various platforms such as ships and other platforms with similar vibratory (rocking or translational) motions. Omnitek Partners has designed several such energyharvesting power sources and is in the process of constructing prototypes for testing. The developed designs are modular and can be used to construct power sources for various power requirements. The amount of mechanical energy available for harvesting is obviously dependent on the frequency and amplitude of vibration of the platform, and the size and mass of the power source.

This paper presents a fixed-fixed folded spring as an alternative elastic element for beam-based piezoelectric energyharvesting. In order to harvestenergy from low frequency vibration in an optimal manner, the natural/operational frequencies of harvesters must be reduced to match low frequency input vibrations. Therefore, natural frequency reduction of vibration-based energyharvesters is critical to maximize output power at low operational frequency. The mechanical optimization of cantilever-based piezoelectric energyharvesters is limited by residual stress-based beam curling that produced through microfabrication adding additional mechanical stiffness to the system. The fixed-fixed folded spring structure presented in this paper allows for increased effective beam length and residual stress relaxation, without out of plane beam curling to further reducing the natural frequency. Multiple designs of folded spring energyharvesters are presented to demonstrate the effect of important design parameters. It is shown that the folded spring harvesters were capable of harvesting electricity at low natural frequencies, ranging from 45 Hz to 3667 Hz. Additionally, the harvesters were shown to be insensitive to microfabrication-based residual stress beam curling. The maximum power output achieved by the folded spring harvesters was 690.5 nW at 226.3 Hz for a single harvesting element of an array, with a PZT layer thickness of 0.24 μm. The work presented in this paper demonstrates that the fixed-fixed folded spring can be used as a viable structural element for low frequency piezoelectric energyharvesting to take advantage of ambient vibrations found in low frequency applications.

To take advantage of applications where both light and vibrationenergy are available, a hybrid indoor ambient light and vibrationenergyharvesting scheme is proposed in this paper. This scheme uses only one power conditioning circuit to condition the combined output power harvested from both energy sources so as to reduce the power dissipation. In order to more accurately predict the instantaneous power harvested from the solar panel, an improved five-parameter model for small-scale solar panel applying in low light illumination is presented. The output voltage is increased by using the MEMS piezoelectric cantilever arrays architecture. It overcomes the disadvantage of traditional MEMS vibrationenergyharvester with low voltage output. The implementation of the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) for indoor ambient light is implemented using analog discrete components, which improves the whole harvester efficiency significantly compared to the digital signal processor. The output power of the vibrationenergyharvester is improved by using the impedance matching technique. An efficient mechanism of energy accumulation and bleed-off is also discussed. Experiment results obtained from an amorphous-silicon (a-Si) solar panel of 4.8 × 2.0 cm2 and a fabricated piezoelectric MEMS generator of 11 × 12.4 mm2 show that the hybrid energyharvester achieves a maximum efficiency around 76.7%. PMID:24854054

We investigate the nonlinear dynamics of magnetically coupled beams for multi-modal vibrationenergyharvesting. A multi-physics model for the proposed device is developed taking into account geometric and magnetic nonlinearities. The coupled nonlinear equations of motion are solved using the Galerkin discretization coupled with the harmonic balance method and the asymptotic numerical method. Several numerical simulations have been performed showing that the expected performances of the proposed vibrationenergyharvester are significantly promising with up to 130 % in term of bandwidth and up to 60 μWcm-3g-2 in term of normalized harvested power.

A mismatch between the ambient frequency and the resonant frequency of the vibrationalenergyharvester causes decrease of the energy transduction efficiency. Therefore, there is a great demand for the resonant frequency tuning of the vibrationalenergyharvester. In this paper, a flexible PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) cantilever, which can switch its resonant frequency automatically and maintain the switched resonant frequency without energy consumption, is proposed. The proposed energyharvester is composed of cantilever couples which are similar with a seesaw structure. When the proposed energyharvester is excited by an external vibration and the excited frequency fluctuates, the cantilever couples can be horizontally moved by using the large deflection of a flexible cantilever. So the beam length of each cantilever which corresponds to each arm of the seesaw structure can be changed and the resonant frequency of the proposed energyharvester can be switched in real time. The proposed energyharvester was realized by application of a piezoelectric polymer, PVDF. Also, it was confirmed that the proposed energyharvester can switch its resonant frequency in several seconds without an additional energy source.

Future deployment of wireless sensor networks will ultimately require a self-sustainable local power source for each sensor, and vibrationenergyharvesting is a promising approach for such applications. A requirement for efficient vibrationenergyharvesting is to match the device and source frequencies. While techniques to tune the resonance frequency of an energyharvesting device have recently been described, in many applications optimization of such systems will require the energyharvesting device to be able to autonomously tune its resonance frequency. In this work a vibrationenergyharvesting device with autonomous resonance frequency tunability utilizing a magnetic stiffness technique is presented. Here a piezoelectric cantilever beam array is employed with magnets attached to the free ends of cantilever beams to enable magnetic force resonance frequency tuning. The device is successfully tuned from - 27% to + 22% of its untuned resonance frequency while outputting a peak power of approximately 1 mW. Since the magnetic force tuning technique is semi-active, energy is only consumed during the tuning process. The developed prototype consumed maximum energies of 3.3 and 3.9 J to tune to the farthest source frequencies with respect to the untuned resonance frequency of the device. The time necessary for this prototype device to harvest the energy expended during its most energy-intensive (largest resonant frequency adjustment) tuning operation is 88 min in a low amplitude 0.1g vibration environment, which could be further optimized using higher efficiency piezoelectric materials and system components.

This paper reports on a new tuning concept, which enables the operation of a vibration generator for energy autonomous condition monitoring of maritime gearboxes. The tuning concept incorporates a circular tuning magnet, which interacts with a coupling magnet attached to the active transducer element. The tuning range can be tailored to the application by careful design of the gap between tuning magnet and coupling magnet. A total rotation angle of only 180° is required for the tuning magnet in order to obtain the full frequency bandwidth. The tuning concept is successfully demonstrated by charging a 0.6 F capacitor on the basis of physical vibration profiles taken from a gearbox.

The study investigated the role of excitation in energyharvesting applications. While the energy ultimately comes from the excitation, it was shown that the excitation may not always behave as a source. When the device characteristics do not perfectly match the excitation, the excitation alternately behaves as a source and a sink. The extent to which the excitation behaves as a sink determines the energyharvesting efficiency. Such contradictory roles were shown to be dictated by a generalized phase defined as the instantaneous phase angle between the velocity of the device and the excitation. An inductive prototype device with a diamagnetically levitated seismic mass was proposed to take advantage of the well established phase changing mechanism of vibro-impact to achieve a broader device bandwidth. Results suggest that the vibro-impact can generate an instantaneous, significant phase shift in response velocity that switches the role of the excitation. If introduced properly outside the resonance zone it could dramatically increase the energyharvesting efficiency. PMID:26496183

The study investigated the role of excitation in energyharvesting applications. While the energy ultimately comes from the excitation, it was shown that the excitation may not always behave as a source. When the device characteristics do not perfectly match the excitation, the excitation alternately behaves as a source and a sink. The extent to which the excitation behaves as a sink determines the energyharvesting efficiency. Such contradictory roles were shown to be dictated by a generalized phase defined as the instantaneous phase angle between the velocity of the device and the excitation. An inductive prototype device with a diamagnetically levitated seismic mass was proposed to take advantage of the well established phase changing mechanism of vibro-impact to achieve a broader device bandwidth. Results suggest that the vibro-impact can generate an instantaneous, significant phase shift in response velocity that switches the role of the excitation. If introduced properly outside the resonance zone it could dramatically increase the energyharvesting efficiency. PMID:26496183

This paper focuses on several aspects extending the dynamical efficiency of a cantilever beam vibrating in the third mode. A few ways of producing this mode stimulation, namely vibro-impact or forced excitation, as well as its application for energyharvesting devices are proposed. The paper presents numerical and experimental analyses of novel structural dynamics effects along with an optimal configuration of the cantilever beam. The peculiarities of a cantilever beam vibrating in the third mode are related to the significant increase of the level of deformations capable of extracting significant additional amounts of energy compared to the conventional harvestervibrating in the first mode. Two types of a piezoelectric vibratingenergyharvester (PVEH) prototype are analysed in this paper: the first one without electrode segmentation, while the second is segmented using electrode segmentation at the strain nodes of the third vibration mode to achieve effective operation at the third resonant frequency. The results of this research revealed that the voltage generated by any segment of the segmented PVEH prototype excited at the third resonant frequency demonstrated a 3.4–4.8-fold increase in comparison with the non-segmented prototype. Simultaneously, the efficiency of the energyharvester prototype also increased at lower resonant frequencies from 16% to 90%. The insights presented in the paper may serve for the development and fabrication of advanced piezoelectric energyharvesters which would be able to generate a considerably increased amount of electrical energy independently of the frequency of kinematical excitation. PMID:26029948

This paper focuses on several aspects extending the dynamical efficiency of a cantilever beam vibrating in the third mode. A few ways of producing this mode stimulation, namely vibro-impact or forced excitation, as well as its application for energyharvesting devices are proposed. The paper presents numerical and experimental analyses of novel structural dynamics effects along with an optimal configuration of the cantilever beam. The peculiarities of a cantilever beam vibrating in the third mode are related to the significant increase of the level of deformations capable of extracting significant additional amounts of energy compared to the conventional harvestervibrating in the first mode. Two types of a piezoelectric vibratingenergyharvester (PVEH) prototype are analysed in this paper: the first one without electrode segmentation, while the second is segmented using electrode segmentation at the strain nodes of the third vibration mode to achieve effective operation at the third resonant frequency. The results of this research revealed that the voltage generated by any segment of the segmented PVEH prototype excited at the third resonant frequency demonstrated a 3.4-4.8-fold increase in comparison with the non-segmented prototype. Simultaneously, the efficiency of the energyharvester prototype also increased at lower resonant frequencies from 16% to 90%. The insights presented in the paper may serve for the development and fabrication of advanced piezoelectric energyharvesters which would be able to generate a considerably increased amount of electrical energy independently of the frequency of kinematical excitation. PMID:26029948

This paper investigates the vibrationenergyharvesting of a system formed by an array of identical artificial flexible stalks connected by equal axial springs. The stalks are excited in bending by the propagating eddies produced by a mixing layer airflow at the top end of the canopy. The energyharvesting is localised in one pivotal stalk, which is equipped with a harvester. The paper first contrasts the spectra of the energyharvested by this system and by a classical system, formed by an equal array of mechanically uncoupled beams, which are all equipped with harvesters. Since the proposed system forms a periodic structure, this analysis considers variations of the stiffness of the harvesting stalk and of the connecting springs, which may lead to natural frequencies veering and mode localisation effects. Finally, the paper presents a parametric study that highlights how the bending stiffness of the harvesting stalk, the axial stiffness of the connecting springs and the energy absorption coefficient of the harvester influence the energy extraction. The study shows that, particularly in presence of strongly correlated drag force excitations produced on the stalks by the airflow, the energyharvested with the proposed system with a single harvester is comparable to that of a more complex and more expensive system formed by a whole array of harvesters.

Vibrations generated by machine driveline components can cause excessive noise and structural dam- age. Magnetostrictive materials, including Galfenol (iron-gallium alloys) and Terfenol-D (terbium-iron- dysprosium alloys), are able to convert mechanical energy to magnetic energy. A magnetostrictive vibration ring is proposed, which generates electrical energy and dampens vibration, when installed in a machine driveline. A 2D axisymmetric finite element (FE) model incorporating magnetic, mechanical, and electrical dynamics is constructed in COMSOL Multiphysics. Based on the model, a parametric study considering magnetostrictive material geometry, pickup coil size, bias magnet strength, flux path design, and electrical load is conducted to maximize loss factor and average electrical output power. By connecting various resistive loads to the pickup coil, the maximum loss factors for Galfenol and Terfenol-D due to electrical energy loss are identified as 0.14 and 0.34, respectively. The maximum av- erage electrical output power for Galfenol and Terfenol-D is 0.21 W and 0.58 W, respectively. The loss factors for Galfenol and Terfenol-D are increased to 0.59 and 1.83, respectively, by using an L-C resonant circuit.

Vibrations generated by machine driveline components can cause excessive noise and structural damage. Magnetostrictive materials, including Galfenol (iron-gallium alloys) and Terfenol-D (terbium-iron-dysprosium alloys), are able to convert mechanical energy to magnetic energy. A magnetostrictive vibration ring is proposed, which generates electrical energy and dampens vibration, when installed in a machine driveline. A 2D axisymmetric finite element (FE) model incorporating magnetic, mechanical, and electrical dynamics is constructed in COMSOL Multiphysics. Based on the model, a parametric study considering magnetostrictive material geometry, pickup coil size, bias magnet strength, flux path design, and electrical load is conducted to maximize loss factor and average electrical output power. By connecting various resistive loads to the pickup coil, the maximum loss factors for Galfenol and Terfenol-D due to electrical energy loss are identified as 0.14 and 0.34, respectively. The maximum average electrical output power for Galfenol and Terfenol-D is 0.21 W and 0.58 W, respectively. The loss factors for Galfenol and Terfenol-D are increased to 0.59 and 1.83, respectively, by using an L-C resonant circuit.

This paper presents miniature AlN harvesters for harvesting low-frequency and two-dimensional vibrationenergy. A high fracture toughness and high yield strength stainless steel substrate was used to enhance output power and reduce resonate frequency of vibrationenergyharvesters. The thickness of 1.89 μm AlN films were deposited on 50 μm thick stainless steel (SUS) substrates for fabricating the harvesters. The Al/AlN/SUS multi-layer sheet was made into long and thin plate-like cantilevers with heavy proof masses attached at their free ends. The devices can collect vibrationenergy efficiently not only under perpendicular direction to the plate surface of cantilevers but also under the parallel direction. When vibration acceleration was 1.0 g, output power was 28.114 μW for perpendicular vibration and 51.735 μW for parallel vibration. When the acceleration of parallel vibration was 1.6 g, output power was 89.339 μW.

Vibrationenergyharvesters can serve as a replacement solution to batteries for powering tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS). Autonomous wireless TPMS powered by microelectromechanical system (MEMS) electret-based vibrationenergyharvester have been demonstrated. The mechanical reliability of the MEMS harvester still has to be assessed in order to bring the harvester to the requirements of the consumer market. It should survive the mechanical shocks occurring in the tire environment. A testing procedure to quantify the shock resilience of harvesters is described in this article. Our first generation of harvesters has a shock resilience of 400 g, which is far from being sufficient for the targeted application. In order to improve this aspect, the first important aspect is to understand the failure mechanism. Failure is found to occur in the form of fracture of the device’s springs. It results from impacts between the anchors of the springs when the harvester undergoes a shock. The shock resilience of the harvesters can be improved by redirecting these impacts to nonvital parts of the device. With this philosophy in mind, we design three types of shock absorbing structures and test their effect on the shock resilience of our MEMS harvesters. The solution leading to the best results consists of rigid silicon stoppers covered by a layer of Parylene. The shock resilience of the harvesters is brought above 2500 g. Results in the same range are also obtained with flexible silicon bumpers, which are simpler to manufacture.

This paper develops an energy-aware ultrasonic sensor network architecture using a Pulse Switching approach for lightweight, through-substrate operation in Structural Health Monitoring applications. Pulse Switching protocols employ single pulses instead of multi-bit packets for information delivery with maximal lightness in event monitoring with binary sensing requirements i.e. where event information transmitted is only a single bit (YES / NO) based on evaluation of structural characteristics. The paper presents a simulation study of the Energy-Aware Through-Substrate Pulse Switching protocol performance for structural monitoring when operated using energyharvested from intermittent vibrations in the structure itself. The paper incorporates an energyharvesting model for simulating memory-less vibration patterns using exponentially distributed random processes at different networked nodes. These nodes are placed inside a rectangular plate structure and the corresponding harvestedenergy profiles are simulated. The vibration profiles are a function of the position of the node on the plate as well as time. Such spatio-temporal variation leads to interesting dynamics in the energy-aware protocol operation which have been explored in the current paper setting. Through the simulations, it is shown that the proposed Energy-Aware Pulse Switching protocol mechanisms can offer a robust through-substrate network that can be reliably used for Structural Health Monitoring using vibration-harvestedenergy.

In this letter, a single vibratory energyharvester integrated with an airfoil is proposed to concurrently harness energy from ambient vibrations and wind. In terms of its transduction capabilities and power density, the integrated device is shown to have a superior performance under the combined loading when compared to utilizing two separate devices to harvestenergy independently from the two available energy sources. Even below its flutter speed, the proposed device was able to provide 2.5 times the power obtained using two separate harvesters.

For many reasons, it would be beneficial to have the capability of powering a wildlife tag over the course of multiple migratory seasons. Such an energyharvesting system would allow for more data collection and eliminate the need to replace depleted batteries. In this work, we investigate energyharvesting on birds and focus on vibrationalenergyharvesting. We review a method of predicting the amount of power that can be safely harvested from the birds such that the effect on their longterm survivability is not compromised. After showing that the safely harvestable power is significant in comparison to the circuits used in avian tags, we present testing results for the flight accelerations of two species of birds. Using these measured values, we then design harvesters that matched the flight acceleration frequency and are sufficiently low mass to be carried by the birds.

We developed self-excited vibrationenergyharvesters of Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) thin films using airflow. To enhance the self-excited vibration, we used 30-μm-thick stainless steel (SS304) foils as base cantilevers on which PZT thin films were deposited by rf-magnetron sputtering. To compensate for the initial bending of PZT/SS304 unimorph cantilever due to the thermal stress, we deposited counter PZT thin films on the back of the SS304 cantilever. We evaluated power-generation performance and vibration mode of the energyharvester in the airflow. When the angle of attack (AOA) was 20° to 30°, large vibration was generated at wind speeds over 8 m/s. By FFT analysis, we confirmed that stable self-excited vibration was generated. At the AOA of 30°, the output power reached 19 μW at wind speeds of 12 m/s.

Linear and nonlinear piezoelectric devices are introduced to continuously recharge the batteries of the pacemakers by converting the vibrations from the heartbeats to electrical energy. The power requirement of a pacemaker is very low. However, after few years, patients require another surgical operation just to replace their pacemaker battery. Linear low frequency and nonlinear mono-stable and bi-stable energyharvesters are designed according to the especial signature of heart vibrations. The proposed energyharvesters are robust to variation of heart rate and can meet the power requirement of pacemakers.

In this work, we present a multimodal wideband vibrationenergyharvester designed to scavenge energy from ambient vibrations over a wide frequency range. The harvester consists of a folded cantilever, three magnetoelectric (ME) transducers, and two magnetic circuits. The folded cantilever enables multi-resonant response formed by bending of each stage, and the nonlinear magnetic forces acting on the folded cantilever beam allow further broadening of the frequency response. We also investigate the effects of the position of the ME transducer on the electrical output in order to achieve optimal performance. The experimental results show that the vibrationenergyharvester exhibited three resonance peaks in a range of 5 Hz to 30 Hz, a wider working bandwidth of 10.1 Hz, and a maximum average power value of 31.58 μW at an acceleration of 0.6 g (with g = 9.8 m/s2).

In this work, we present a multimodal wideband vibrationenergyharvester designed to scavenge energy from ambient vibrations over a wide frequency range. The harvester consists of a folded cantilever, three magnetoelectric (ME) transducers, and two magnetic circuits. The folded cantilever enables multi-resonant response formed by bending of each stage, and the nonlinear magnetic forces acting on the folded cantilever beam allow further broadening of the frequency response. We also investigate the effects of the position of the ME transducer on the electrical output in order to achieve optimal performance. The experimental results show that the vibrationenergyharvester exhibited three resonance peaks in a range of 5 Hz to 30 Hz, a wider working bandwidth of 10.1 Hz, and a maximum average power value of 31.58 μW at an acceleration of 0.6 g (with g = 9.8 m/s2).

Converting ambient mechanical energy to electricity, vibrationenergyharvesting, enables powering of the low-power remote sensors. Nonlinear energyharvesters have the advantage of a wider frequency spectrum compared to linear resonators making them more efficient in scavenging the broadband frequency of ambient vibrations. To increase the output power of the nonlinear resonators, we propose an energyharvester composed of a cantilever piezoelectric beam carrying a movable magnet facing a fixed magnet at a distance. The movable magnet on the beam is attached to a spring at the base of the beam. The spring-magnet system on the cantilever beam creates the variable double well potential function. The spring attached to the magnet is in its compressed position when the beam is not deflected, as the beam oscillates, the spring energy gradually releases and further increases the amplitude of vibration. To describe the motion of the cantilever beam, we obtained two coupled partial differential equations by assuming the cantilever beam as Euler-Bernoulli beam considering the effect of the moving magnet. Method of multiple scales is used to solve the coupled equations. The cantilever beam with the two magnets is a bi-stable system. Making one magnet movable can create internal resonance that is explored as a mechanism to increase the frequency bandwidth. The effect of system parameters on the frequency bandwidth of the resonator is investigated through numerical solutions. This study benefits vibrationenergyharvesting to achieve a higher performance when excited by the wideband ambient vibrations.

While environmental vibrations are usually in the range of a few hundred Hertz, small-form-factor piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvesters will have higher resonant frequencies due to the structural size effect. To address this issue, we propose a resonant frequency-down conversion based on the theory of dynamic vibration absorber for the design of a small-form-factor piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvester. The proposed energyharvester consists of two frequency-tuned elastic components for lowering the first resonant frequency of an integrated system but is so configured that an energyharvesting beam component is inverted with respect to the other supporting beam component for a small form factor. Furthermore, in order to change the unwanted modal characteristic of small separation of resonant frequencies, as is the case with an inverted configuration, a proof mass on the supporting beam component is slightly shifted toward a second proof mass on the tip of the energyharvesting beam component. The proposed small-form-factor design capability was experimentally verified using a fabricated prototype with an occupation volume of 20 × 39 × 6.9 mm3, which was designed for a target frequency of as low as 100 Hz.

While environmental vibrations are usually in the range of a few hundred Hertz, small-form-factor piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvesters will have higher resonant frequencies due to the structural size effect. To address this issue, we propose a resonant frequency-down conversion based on the theory of dynamic vibration absorber for the design of a small-form-factor piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvester. The proposed energyharvester consists of two frequency-tuned elastic components for lowering the first resonant frequency of an integrated system but is so configured that an energyharvesting beam component is inverted with respect to the other supporting beam component for a small form factor. Furthermore, in order to change the unwanted modal characteristic of small separation of resonant frequencies, as is the case with an inverted configuration, a proof mass on the supporting beam component is slightly shifted toward a second proof mass on the tip of the energyharvesting beam component. The proposed small-form-factor design capability was experimentally verified using a fabricated prototype with an occupation volume of 20 × 39 × 6.9 mm{sup 3}, which was designed for a target frequency of as low as 100 Hz.

Increasing demand in mobile, autonomous devices has made energyharvesting a particular point of interest. Systems that can be powered up by a few hundreds of microwatts could feature their own energy extraction module. Energy can be harvested from the environment close to the device. Particularly, the ambient mechanical vibrations conversion via piezoelectric transducers is one of the most investigated fields for energyharvesting. A technique for optimized energyharvesting using piezoelectric actuators called "Synchronized Switching Harvesting" is explored. Comparing to a typical full bridge rectifier, the proposed harvesting technique can highly improve harvesting efficiency, even in a significantly extended frequency window around the piezoelectric actuator's resonance. In this paper, the concept of design, theoretical analysis, modeling, implementation and experimental results using CEDRAT's APA 400M-MD piezoelectric actuator are presented in detail. Moreover, we suggest design guidelines for optimum selection of the storage unit in direct relation to the characteristics of the random vibrations. From a practical aspect, the harvesting unit is based on dedicated electronics that continuously sense the charge level of the actuator's piezoelectric element. When the charge is sensed, to come to a maximum, it is directed to speedily flow into a storage unit. Special care is taken so that electronics operate at low voltages consuming a very small amount of the energy stored. The final prototype developed includes the harvesting circuit implemented with miniaturized, low cost and low consumption electronics and a storage unit consisting of a super capacitors array, forming a truly self-powered system drawing energy from ambient random vibrations of a wide range of characteristics.

In this paper, a nonlinear wideband multi-mode piezoelectric vibration-based energyharvester (PVEH) is proposed based on a compliant orthoplanar spring (COPS), which has an advantage of providing multiple vibration modes at relatively low frequencies. The PVEH is made of a tri-leg COPS flexible structure, where three fixed-guided beams are capable of generating strong nonlinear oscillations under certain base excitation. A prototype harvester was fabricated and investigated through both finite-element analysis and experiments. The frequency response shows multiple resonance which corresponds to a hardening type of nonlinear resonance. By adding masses at different locations on the COPS structure, the first three vibration modes are brought close to each other, where the three hardening nonlinear resonances provide a wide bandwidth for the PVEH. The proposed PVEH has enhanced performance of the energyharvester in terms of a wide frequency bandwidth and a high-voltage output under base excitations.

This paper presents an optimal design for a system comprising a nonlinear energy sink (NES) and a piezoelectric-based vibrationenergyharvester attached to a free-free beam under shock excitation. The energyharvester is used for scavenging vibrationenergy dissipated by the NES. Grounded and ungrounded configurations are examined and the systems parameters are optimized globally to both maximize the dissipated energy by the NES and increase the harvestedenergy by piezoelectric element. A satisfactory amount of energy has been harvested as electric power in both configurations. The realization of nonlinear vibration control through one-way irreversible nonlinear energy pumping and optimizing the system parameters result in acquiring up to 78 percent dissipation of the grounded system energy.

In this paper an adaptive tuned piezoelectric vibration based energyharvesting system based on the use of electrostatic device is proposed. The main motivation is to control the resonance frequency of the piezoelectric harvester with the DC voltage applied to the electrostatic system in order to maximize the harvested power. The idea is demonstrated in a hybrid system consisting of a cantilevered piezoelectric harvester combined with an electrostatic harvester which is connected to a variable voltage source. The nonlinear governing differential equation of motion is derived based on Euler Bernoulli theory, and solved to obtain the static and dynamic solutions. The results show that the harvester can be tuned to give a resonant response over a wide range of frequencies, and shows the great potential of this hybrid system.

Energyharvesters with battery charging circuitry, which collect wasted kinetic energy from a magnetic disk drive's rotary actuator seek operations and flexible cable vibrations, are proposed, prototyped and presented in this paper. Depending on a disk drive's form factor and seek format, it is suggested by the present study that the harvestedenergy can be optimized by tuning the harvester's natural frequencies to major frequency content in the rotary actuator's excitation. It is demonstrated in this study that with prototype energyharvester systems, one can easily light up a regular LED. The work presented in this paper has implications in energy saving and recycling wasted mechanical energy for other low-power electronic applications in magnetic disk drive storage devices.

A novel piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvesting system is proposed whose harvesting performance could be significantly enhanced by introducing one or multiple additional piezoelectric elements placed between every two nearby oscillators. The proposed two degree-of-freedom piezoelectric vibrationharvester system is expected to extract 9.78 times more electrical energy than a conventional two degrees of freedom harvester system with only one piezoelectric element inserted close to the base. A parameter study of a multiple degree-of-freedom piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvester system has been conducted to provide a guideline for tuning its harvesting bandwidth and optimizing its design. Based on the analysis method of the two degrees of freedom piezoelectric vibrationharvester system, a generalised MDOF piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvester with multiple pieces of piezoelectric elements inserted between every two nearby oscillators is studied. The harvested power values of the piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvesters of 1 to 5 degree-of-freedom have been compared while the total mass and the mass ratio of the oscillators are kept as constants. It is found that the greater numbers of degree-of-freedom of a PVEH with the more additional piezoelectric elements inserted between every two nearby oscillators would enable that system to harvest more energy. The first mode resonant frequency will be shifted to a low-frequency range when the numbers of degree-of-freedom increase.

In this paper, we describe a novel structure of a vibrational micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) device for power generation enhancement. A synchronized multiple-array vibrational device, in which movable plates are connected by rods, increases the area of the movable plate in the energy conversion region and couples the phase of movement. The fabricated device resonates at approximately 1430 Hz with an acceleration amplitude of 6 m/s2 and nanoampere-order AC current is generated. These results confirm that this MEMS vibrational device will contribute to the progress in energyharvesting.

Vibration-based energyharvesting seeks to convert ambient vibrations to electrical energy and is of interest for, among other applications, powering the individual nodes of wireless sensor networks. Generally it is desired to match the resonant frequencies of the device to the ambient vibration source to optimize the energyharvested. This paper presents a two-dimensionally (2D) tunable vibration-based energyharvesting device via the application of magnetic forces in two-dimensional space. These forces are accounted for in the model separately, with the transverse force contributing to the transverse stiffness of the system while the axial force contributes to a change in axial stiffness of the beam. Simulation results from a COMSOL magnetostatic 3D model agree well with the analytical model and are confirmed with a separate experimental study. Furthermore, analysis of the three possible magnetization orientations between the fixed and tuning magnets shows that the transverse parallel magnetization orientation is the most effective with regards to the proposed 2D tuning approach. In all cases the transverse stiffness term is in general significantly larger than the axial stiffness contribution, suggesting that from a tuning perspective it may be possible to use these stiffness contributions for coarse and fine frequency tuning, respectively. This 2D resonant frequency tuning approach extends earlier 1D approaches and may be particularly useful in applications where space constraints impact the available design space of the energyharvester.

This work has demonstrated a novel piezoelectric energyharvester without a complex structure and appended component that is capable of scavenging vibrationenergy from arbitrary directions with multiple resonant frequencies. In this harvester, a spiral-shaped elastic thin beam instead of a traditional thin cantilever beam was adopted to absorb external vibration with arbitrary direction in three-dimensional (3D) spaces owing to its ability to bend flexibly and stretch along arbitrary direction. Furthermore, multiple modes in the elastic thin beam contribute to a possibility to widen the working bandwidth with multiple resonant frequencies. The experimental results show that the harvester was capable of scavenging the vibrationenergy in 3D arbitrary directions; they also exhibited triple power peaks at about 16 Hz, 21 Hz, and 28 Hz with the powers of 330 μW, 313 μW, and 6 μW, respectively. In addition, human walking and water wave energies were successfully converted into electricity, proving that our harvester was practical to scavenge the time-variant or multi-directional vibrationenergies in our daily life. PMID:26827346

This work has demonstrated a novel piezoelectric energyharvester without a complex structure and appended component that is capable of scavenging vibrationenergy from arbitrary directions with multiple resonant frequencies. In this harvester, a spiral-shaped elastic thin beam instead of a traditional thin cantilever beam was adopted to absorb external vibration with arbitrary direction in three-dimensional (3D) spaces owing to its ability to bend flexibly and stretch along arbitrary direction. Furthermore, multiple modes in the elastic thin beam contribute to a possibility to widen the working bandwidth with multiple resonant frequencies. The experimental results show that the harvester was capable of scavenging the vibrationenergy in 3D arbitrary directions; they also exhibited triple power peaks at about 16 Hz, 21 Hz, and 28 Hz with the powers of 330 μW, 313 μW, and 6 μW, respectively. In addition, human walking and water wave energies were successfully converted into electricity, proving that our harvester was practical to scavenge the time-variant or multi-directional vibrationenergies in our daily life.

This paper studies energyharvesting from heartbeat vibrations for powering leadless pacemakers. Unlike traditional pacemakers, leadless pacemakers are implanted inside the heart and the pacemaker is in direct contact with the myocardium. A leadless pacemaker is in the shape of a cylinder. Thus, in order to utilize the available 3-dimensional space for the energyharvester, we choose a fan-folded 3D energyharvester. The proposed device consists of several piezoelectric beams stacked on top of each other. The volume of the energyharvester is 1 cm3 and its dimensions are 2 cm × 0.5 cm × 1 cm. Although high natural frequency is generally a major concern with micro-scale energyharvesters, by utilizing the fan-folded geometry and adding tip mass and link mass to the configuration, we reduced the natural frequency to the desired range. This fan-folded design makes it possible to generate more than 10 μ W of power per cubic centimeter. The proposed device is compatible with Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Although the proposed device is a linear energyharvester, it is relatively insensitive to the heart rate. The natural frequencies and the mode shapes of the device are calculated analytically. The accuracy of the analytical model is verified by experimental investigations. We use a closed loop shaker system to precisely replicate heartbeat vibrations in vitro.

We present a piezoelectric energy-harvesting system, which is able to self-tune its resonance frequency in an energy-autonomous way, in order to extend its efficient operation over a large frequency range. The system consists of a resonant and frequency-tunable piezoelectric generator and a control unit. In predefined temporal intervals, the control unit analyzes the ambient vibration frequency, decides whether an adjustment of the generator's resonance frequency is necessary or not and delivers the appropriate voltage to a piezoelectric actuator which alters the generator's mechanical stiffness to tune its resonance frequency. The control unit has been optimized to an ultralow power consumption which means that up to 90% of the harvestedenergy can be fed to the powered electrical load, which could be an embedded system. With frequency-tunable generators, the application range of vibrationenergyharvesters can be extended to environments with a non-constant vibration frequency, like e.g. the surface of an engine with a varying number of revolutions per minute. Furthermore, the presented system opens the door to off-the-shelf solutions for environments with constant but uncommon vibration frequencies. With the smart tuning algorithm presented in this work, our system is even able to compensate typical weak points of piezoelectrically tunable harvesters, like e.g. hysteresis effects, the temperature dependence of the mechanical stiffness and aging effects.

A two-dimensional numerical study of flow induced vibration is reported in this paper to investigate flow over a semi-cricular D-shaped bluff body oriented at different angles-of-attack to determine an optimized design for energyharvesting. Bluff body structure governs fluid streamlines; therefore obtaining a suitable range of "lock in frequency" for energyharvesting purpose is dependent on refining and optimizing bluff body's shape and structure. A cantilever based novel energyharvester design incorporates the suitable angle-of-attack for optimized performance. This optimization was done by performing computations for 30°, 60° and 90° angles-of-attack. The frequency of vibration of the body was calculated at different Reynolds Number. A Fast Fourier Transformation yielded frequency of vortex shedding. From the wake velocity profile, lift oscillation and frequency of vortex shedding is estimated. Strouhal numbers of the body were analyzed at different angles-of-attack. A higher synchronized bandwidth of shedding frequencies is an indication of an optimized harvester design at different Reynolds number. The `D' shaped bluff bodies (with angle of attack of 30°,60° and 90°) are more suitable than that of cylindrical shaped bluff bodies. The research clearly stated that, bluff bodies shape has a prominent influence on vortex induced vibration and semicircular bluff body gives the highest vibration or energy under stated conditions.

In this paper, a piezoelectric vibrationalenergyharvester utilizing coupled bending and torsional vibrations is investigated. The proposed system consists of a cantilever-type substrate covered by the piezoelectric ceramic and a proof mass which is perpendicularly connected to the free end of the cantilever beam by a rigid bar. While the natural frequency and output voltage of the conventional system are affected by bending deformation of the piezoelectric plate, the proposed system makes use of its twisting deformation. The natural frequency of the device can be significantly decreased by manipulating the location of the proof mass on the rigid bar. In order to validate the performance of the proposed energyharvester, numerical simulations and vertical shaker tests are carried out. It is demonstrated that the proposed energyharvester can shift down its resonant frequency considerably and generate much higher output power than the conventional system. It is, therefore, concluded that the proposed energyharvester utilizing the coupled bending and torsional vibrations can be effectively applied to low-frequency vibration situations.

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have the potential to transform engineering infrastructure, manufacturing, and building controls by allowing condition monitoring, asset tracking, demand response, and other intelligent feedback systems. A wireless sensor node consists of a power supply, sensor(s), power conditioning circuitry, radio transmitter and/or receiver, and a micro controller. Such sensor nodes are used for collecting and communicating data regarding the state of a machine, system, or process. The increasing demand for better ways to power wireless devices and increase operation time on a single battery charge drives an interest in energyharvesting research. Today, wireless sensor nodes are typically powered by a standard single-charge battery, which becomes depleted within a relatively short timeframe depending on the application. This introduces tremendous labor costs associated with battery replacement, especially when there are thousands of nodes in a network, the nodes are remotely located, or widely-distributed. Piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvesting presents a potential solution to the problems associated with too-short battery life and high maintenance requirements, especially in industrial environments where vibrations are ubiquitous. Energyharvester designs typically use the harvester to trickle charge a rechargeable energy storage device rather than directly powering the electronics with the harvestedenergy. This allows a buffer between the energyharvester supply and the load where energy can be stored in a "tank". Therefore, the harvester does not need to produce the full required power at every instant to successfully power the node. In general, there are tens of microwatts of power available to be harvested from ambient vibrations using micro scale devices and tens of milliwatts available from ambient vibrations using meso scale devices. Given that the power requirements of wireless sensor nodes range from several microwatts to about one

This letter investigates the energyharvesting from the horizontal coherent resonance of a vertical cantilever beam subjected to the vertical base excitation. The potential energy of the system has two symmetric potential wells. So, under vertical excitation, the system can jump between two potential wells, which will lead to the large vibration in horizontal direction. Two piezoelectric patches are pasted to harvest the energy. From experiment, it is found that the vertical excitation can make the beam turn to be bistable. The system can transform vertical vibration into horizontal vibration of low frequency when excited by harmonic motion. The horizontal coherence resonance can be observed when excited by a vertical white noise. The corresponding output voltages of piezoelectric films reach high values.

Energy need from off-grid locations has been critical for effective real-time monitoring and control to ensure structural safety and reliability. To harvestenergy from ambient environments, the piezoelectric-based energy-harvesting system has been proven very efficient to convert high frequency vibrations into usable electrical energy. However, due to the low frequency nature of the vibrations of civil infrastructures, such as those induced from vehicle impacts, wind, and waves, the application of a traditional piezoelectric-based energy-harvesting system is greatly restrained since the output power drops dramatically with the reduction of vibration frequencies. This paper focuses on the coupled analysis of a proposed piezoelectric multi-impact wind-energy-harvesting device that can effectively up-convert low frequency wind-induced vibrations into high frequency ones. The device consists of an H-shape beam and four bimorph piezoelectric cantilever beams. The H-shape beam, which can be easily triggered to vibrate at a low wind speed, is originated from the first Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which failed at wind speeds of 18.8 m s-1 in 1940. The multi-impact mechanism between the H-shape beam and the bimorph piezoelectric cantilever beams is incorporated to improve the harvesting performance at lower frequencies. During the multi-impact process, a series of sequential impacts between the H-shape beam and the cantilever beams can trigger high frequency vibrations of the cantilever beams and result in high output power with a considerably high efficiency. In the coupled analysis, the coupled structural, aerodynamic, and electrical equations are solved to obtain the dynamic response and the power output of the proposed harvesting device. A parametric study for several parameters in the coupled analysis framework is carried out including the external resistance, wind speed, and the configuration of the H-shape beam. The average harvested power for the piezoelectric cantilever

Power source is critical to achieve independent and autonomous operations of electronic mobile devices. The vibration-based energyharvesting is extensively studied recently, and recognized as a promising technology to realize inexhaustible power supply for small-scale electronics. Among various approaches, the piezoelectric energyharvesting has gained the most attention due to its high conversion efficiency and simple configurations. However, most of piezoelectric energyharvesters (PEHs) to date are based on bending-beam structures and can only generate limited power with a narrow working bandwidth. The insufficient electric output has greatly impeded their practical applications. In this paper, we present an innovative lead zirconate titanate (PZT) energyharvester, named high-efficiency compressive-mode piezoelectric energyharvester (HC-PEH), to enhance the performance of energyharvesters. A theoretical model was developed analytically, and solved numerically to study the nonlinear characteristics of the HC-PEH. The results estimated by the developed model agree well with the experimental data from the fabricated prototype. The HC-PEH shows strong nonlinear responses, favorable working bandwidth and superior power output. Under a weak excitation of 0.3 g (g = 9.8 m/s2), a maximum power output 30 mW is generated at 22 Hz, which is about ten times better than current energyharvesters. The HC-PEH demonstrates the capability of generating enough power for most of wireless sensors.

In this paper, a new design of a self-tuning bimorph PZT beam for maximum vibrationenergyharvesting is introduced. As is well known, a PZT beam harvester captures the most energy as it resonates with the ambient vibration. The ambient excitation frequency varies in nature so that proper tracking of the ambient frequency and adjusting the harvester’s resonance frequency accordingly would assure the most energy retrieved. The harvester introduced in the paper is composed of an elastic beam partially covered with two-sided PZT patches, the same as most others, but the method of tuning its resonance frequency is novel. A movable intermediate rigid support is attached to the beam and by adjusting the support’s position according to the sensed ambient frequency, the beam’s resonance frequency will coincide with the ambient frequency such that the harvestedvibrationenergy is maximized. The theoretical analysis employs Hamilton’s principle, the assumed-mode method, and the receptance method. Numerical results are obtained and compared with the experimental ones. They show excellent agreement in a frequency versus support’s position chart. The most significant feature is that there can be up to ±35% of resonance frequency tunability. This achievement provides substantial advantages in power-harvesting applications. An experiment for base excitation to simulate the ambient vibration is setup as well and the results show that as little as 5% excitation frequency variation would cause more than 70% output voltage drop if there were no tuning ability. The novel design could significantly enhance the harvestedenergy in a short duration of time.

The increasing worldwide efforts in securing renewable energy sources increase incentive for civil engineers to investigate whether the kinetic energy associated with the vibration of larger-scale structures can be harvested. Such a research remains challenging and incomplete despite that hundreds of related articles have been published in the last decade. Base isolation is one of the most popular means of protecting a civil engineering structure against earthquake forces. Seismic isolation hinges on the decoupling of the structure from the shaking ground, hence protecting the structure from stress and damage during an earthquake excitation. The low stiffness isolator inserted between the structure and the ground dominates the response leading to a structural system of longer vibration period. As a consequence of this period shift, the spectral acceleration is reduced, but higher response displacements are produced. To mitigate this side effect, usually isolators are combined with the use of additional energy dissipation. In this study, the feasibility of scavenging the need-to-be dissipated energy from the isolator installed in a seismically isolated bridge using an electromagnetic (EM) energyharvester is investigated. The EM energyharvester consists of an energyharvesting circuit and a capacitor for energy storage. A mathematical model for this proposed EM energyharvester is developed and implemented on an idealized base-isolated single-degree-of-freedom system. The effect of having this EM energyharvester on the performance of this seismic isolated system is analyzed and discussed. The potential of installing such an EM energyharvester on a seismically isolated bridge is also addressed.

The characteristics and performances of four distinct vortex-induced vibrations (VIVs) piezoelectric energyharvesters are experimentally investigated and compared. The difference between these VIV energyharvesters is the installation of the cylindrical bluff body at the tip of cantilever beam with different orientations (bottom, top, horizontal, and vertical). Experiments show that the synchronization regions of the bottom, top, and horizontal configurations are almost the same at low wind speeds (around 1.5 m/s). The vertical configuration has the highest wind speed for synchronization (around 3.5 m/s) with the largest harvested power, which is explained by its highest natural frequency and the smallest coupled damping. The results lead to the conclusion that to design efficient VIV energyharvesters, the bluff body should be aligned with the beam for low wind speeds (<2 m/s) and perpendicular to the beam at high wind speeds (>2 m/s).

Recently, piezoelectric cantilevered beams have received considerable attention for vibration-to-electric energy conversion. Generally, researchers have investigated a classical piezoelectric cantilever beam with or without a tip mass. In this paper, we propose the use of a unimorph cantilever beam undergoing bending-torsion vibrations as a new piezoelectric energyharvester. The proposed design consists of a single piezoelectric layer and a couple of asymmetric tip masses; the latter convert part of the base excitation force into a torsion moment. This structure can be tuned to be a broader band energyharvester by adjusting the first two global natural frequencies to be relatively close to each other. We develop a distributed-parameter model of the harvester by using the Euler-beam theory and Hamilton's principle, thereby obtaining the governing equations of motion and associated boundary conditions. Then, we calculate the exact eigenvalues and associated mode shapes and validate them with a finite element (FE) model. We use these mode shapes in a Galerkin procedure to develop a reduced-order model of the harvester, which we use in turn to obtain closed-form expressions for the displacement, twisting angle, voltage output, and harvested electrical power. These expressions are used to conduct a parametric study for the dynamics of the system to determine the appropriate set of geometric properties that maximizes the harvested electrical power. The results show that, as the asymmetry is increased, the harvester's performance improves. We found a 30% increase in the harvested power with this design compared to the case of beams undergoing bending only. We also show that the locations of the two masses can be chosen to bring the lowest two global natural frequencies closer to each other, thereby allowing the harvesting of electrical power from multi-frequency excitations.

The concept of harvestingenergy from a circular cylinder undergoing vortex-induced vibrations is investigated. The energy is harvested by attaching a piezoelectric transducer to the transverse degree of freedom. Numerical simulations are performed for Reynolds numbers (Re) in the range 96≤Re≤118, which covers the pre-synchronization, synchronization, and post-synchronization regimes. Load resistances (R) in the range 500 Ω≤R≤5 MΩ are considered. The results show that the load resistance has a significant effect on the oscillation amplitude, lift coefficient, voltage output, and harvested power. The results also show that the synchronization region widens when the load resistance increases. It is also found that there is an optimum value of the load resistance for which the harvested power is maximum. This optimum value does not correspond to the case of largest oscillations, which points to the need for a coupled analysis as performed here.

A vibration structure with two-degrees-of-freedom is proposed to increase the usable bandwidth of a micromachined electromagnetic energyharvester. Compared with the structure of a pure cantilever harvester, the proposed structure is formed by integrating a spiral diaphragm into a U-shaped cantilever diaphragm. By performing finite element analysis, the resonance frequencies of the two diaphragms are designed with a slight shift, both lower than 300 Hz. In addition, to achieve output bandwidth broadening, electroplated copper coils on the spiral and the U-shaped cantilever are coupled and the connection sequences of the coupled coils are arranged such that single- or duo-mode tuning of the energyharvester can be realized. The harvester delivers powers of 22.1 and 21.5 nW at two resonance frequencies of 211 and 274 Hz, respectively, in the duo-mode operation. The proposed spiral–cantilever coupled energyharvester has lower resonance frequencies and broader bandwidth than a pure cantilever-type harvester of equal area, and can therefore harvest more energy from the environment.

The minimum transducer coupling to enable maximum theoretical power capture from vibrationenergyharvesters is derived, leading to the simple conclusion that the product of the transducer coupling coefficient and resonance quality factor must be greater than two. Maximum theoretical power capture is experimentally demonstrated on a micromachined piezoelectric energyharvester comprised of a 20 μm thick epitaxial silicon cantilever with 800 nm thick lead-zirconate-titanate along the top surface and a bulk silicon mass at the tip. The coupling of these structures, although small (κ2=0.0033), is entirely sufficient to enable maximum theoretical power capture owing to light damping (Q =906).

This work introduces a new concept to integrate energy-harvesting devices with the aim of improving their throughput, mainly in terms of scavenged energy density and frequency tunability. This concept, named energyharvester in package (EHiP), is focused on the heterogeneous integration of a MEMS die, dedicated to scavenging energy, with an auxiliary chip, which can include the control and power management circuitry, sensors and RF transmission capabilities. The main advantages are that the whole die can be used as an inertial mass and the chip area usage is optimized. Based on this concept, in this paper we describe the development and characterization of a MEMS die fully dedicated to harvesting mechanical energy from ambient vibrations through an electrostatic transduction. A test PCB has been fabricated to perform the assembly that allows measurement of the resonance motion of the whole system at 289 Hz. An estimated maximum generated power of around 11 μW has been obtained for an input vibration acceleration of ˜10 m s-2 when the energyharvester operates in a constant-charge cycle for the best-case scenario. Therefore, a maximum scavenged power density of 0.85 mW cm-3 is theoretically expected for the assembled system. These results demonstrate that the generated power density of any vibration-based energyharvester can be significantly increased by applying the EHiP concept, which could become an industrial standard for manufacturing this kind of system, independently of the transduction type, fabrication technology or application.

In this study, a magnetoelectric vibrationenergyharvester was demonstrated, which aims at addressing the limitations of the existing approaches in single dimensional operation with narrow working bandwidth. A circular cross-section cantilever rod, not a conventional thin cantilever beam, was adopted to extract vibrationenergy in arbitrary in-plane motion directions. The magnetic interaction not only resulted in a nonlinear motion of the rod with increased frequency bandwidth, but also contributed to a multi-mode motion to exhibit double power peaks. In energyharvesting with in-plane directions, it showed a maximum bandwidth of 4.4 Hz and power of 0.59 mW, with acceleration of 0.6 g (with g = 9.8 m s{sup −2})

Energyharvesting technology is critical in the development of self-powered electronic devices. Over the past few decades, several transduction mechanisms have been investigated for harvesting various forms of ambient energy. This paper provides an investigation of a novel transducer material for vibrationenergyharvesting; piezoelectret foam. Piezoelectrets are cellular ferroelectret foams, which are thin, flexible polymeric materials that exhibit piezoelectric properties. The basic operational principle behind cellular ferroelectrets involves the deformation of internally charged voids in the polymer, which can be represented as macroscopic dipoles, resulting in a potential developed across the material. Both the mechanical and electromechanical properties of this material are investigated in this work. Mechanical testing is performed using traditional tensile testing techniques to obtain experimental measures of the stiffness and strength of the materials. Electromechanical testing is performed in order to establish a relationship between input mechanical energy and output electrical energy by dynamically measuring the piezoelectric constant, d33. Additionally, the properties of ferroelectret foams are compared to those of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), a conventional polymer-based piezoelectric material whose crystalline phase exhibits piezoelectricity through dipole orientation. Finally, the feasibility of vibrationenergyharvesting using piezoelectret materials is investigated.

We present electroelastic modeling, analytical and numerical solutions, and experimental validations of piezoelectric energyharvesting from broadband random vibrations. The modeling approach employed herein is based on a distributed-parameter electroelastic formulation to ensure that the effects of higher vibration modes are included, since broadband random vibrations, such as Gaussian white noise, might excite higher vibration modes. The goal is to predict the expected value of the power output and the mean-square shunted vibration response in terms of the given power spectral density (PSD) or time history of the random vibrational input. The analytical method is based on the PSD of random base excitation and distributed-parameter frequency response functions of the coupled voltage output and shunted vibration response. The first of the two numerical solution methods employs the Fourier series representation of the base acceleration history in an ordinary differential equation solver while the second method uses an Euler-Maruyama scheme to directly solve the resulting electroelastic stochastic differential equations. The analytical and numerical simulations are compared with several experiments for a brass-reinforced PZT-5H bimorph under different random excitation levels. The simulations exhibit very good agreement with the experimental measurements for a range of resistive electrical boundary conditions and input PSD levels. It is also shown that lightly damped higher vibration modes can alter the expected power curve under broadband random excitation. Therefore, the distributed-parameter modeling and solutions presented herein can be used as a more accurate alternative to the existing single-degree-of-freedom solutions for broadband random vibrationenergyharvesting.

Vibration-based energyharvesting is an approach where available mechanical vibrationenergy is converted into electrical energy that can be employed for different purposes. This paper deals with the synergistic use of smart materials for energyharvesting purposes. In essence, piezoelectric and shape memory alloys are combined to build an energyharvesting system. The combined effect of these materials can increase the system performance and reduce some limitations. The possibility to control the mechanical stiffness under vibration by a shape memory alloy (SMA) element can provide the ability to tune resonant frequencies in order to increase the output power. The analysis is developed considering a one-degree of freedom mechanical system where the restitution force is provided by an SMA element. The electro-mechanical coupling is provided by a piezoelectric element. Linear piezoelectric constitutive equation is employed together with the Brinson's model for SMA element. Numerical simulations are carried out showing different responses of the system indicating that the inclusion of the SMA element can be used to extend the operational range of the system.

Trees exploit intriguing mechanisms such as multimodal frequency distributions and nonlinearities to distribute and dampen the aerodynamically-induced vibrationenergies to which they are subjected. In dynamical systems, these mechanisms are comparable to the internal resonance phenomenon. In recent years, researchers have harnessed strong nonlinearities, including internal resonance, to induce energetic dynamics that enhance performance of vibrationenergyharvesting systems. For trees, the internal resonance-like dynamics are evidently useful damping mechanisms in spite of the high variation associated with excitation and structural parameters. Yet for dynamic systems, studies show narrow operating regimes which exhibit internal resonance-based behaviors, suggesting that the energetic dynamics may be deactivated if stochastic inputs corrupt ideal excitation properties. To address these issues, this research evaluates the opportunities enabled by exploiting nonlinear, multimodal motions in an L-shaped energyharvester platform. The system dynamics are probed analytically, numerically, and experimentally for comprehensive insights on the versatility of internal resonance-based behaviors for energyharvesting. It is found that although activating the high amplitude nonlinear dynamics to enhance power generation is robust to significant additive noise in the harmonic excitations, parameter sensitivities may pose practical challenges in application. Discussion is provided on means to address such concerns and on future strategies that may favorably exploit nonlinearity and multimodal dynamics for robust energyharvesting performance.

Trees exploit intriguing mechanisms such as multimodal frequency distributions and nonlinearities to distribute and dampen the aerodynamically-induced vibrationenergies to which they are subjected. In dynamical systems, these mechanisms are comparable to internal resonance phenomena. In recent years, researchers have harnessed strong nonlinearities, including internal resonance, to induce energetic dynamics that enhance performance of vibrationenergyharvesting systems. For trees, the internal resonance-like dynamics are evidently useful to dampen swaying motions in spite of the high variation associated with excitation and structural parameters. Yet for dynamic systems, studies show narrow operating regimes which exhibit internal resonance-based behaviors; this additionally suggests that the energetic dynamics may be susceptible to deactivation if stochastic inputs corrupt ideal excitation properties. To address these issues and to investigate whether the underlying motivation of exploiting internal resonance-induced saturation dynamics is truly justified, this research evaluates the opportunities enabled by exploiting nonlinear, multimodal motions in an L-shaped energyharvester platform. The system dynamics are probed analytically, numerically, and experimentally for comprehensive insights on the versatility of internal resonance-based behaviors for energyharvesting. It is found that although activating the high amplitude nonlinear dynamics to enhance power generation is robust to significant additive noise in the harmonic excitations, parameter sensitivities may pose practical challenges in application. Discussion is provided on means to address such concerns and on future strategies that may favorably exploit nonlinearity and multimodal dynamics for robust energyharvesting performance.

In this research, a vibrationenergyharvester employing the FeCuNbSiB/Terfenol-D/PZT/Terfenol-D/FeCuNbSiB five-phase laminate composite transducer to convert mechanical vibrationenergy into electrical energy was presented. The electric output performance of the proposed vibrationenergyharvester has been investigated. It was found that appropriate FeCuNbSiB layer thickness was propitious to the electric output characteristics. Compared to traditional vibrationenergyharvester using Terfenol-D/PZT/Terfenol-D (MPM) transducer, the experimental results show that the proposed vibrationenergyharvester provides a remarkably enhanced output power performance. When the thickness of FeCuNbSiB layer was 30 μm, the optimum output power of vibrationenergyharvester achieved 4.00 mW/g for an acceleration of 0.8 g at frequency of 34.5 Hz, which was 1.29 times as great as that of traditional MPM transducer. Remarkably, this power is a very encouraging power figure and the proposed vibrationenergyharvester has great potential as far as its application in wireless sensor network.

This paper presents study of an electromagnetic vibrationenergyharvesting configuration that can work effectively at low frequencies. Unlike the conventional form of vibrationenergyharvesters in which the mass is directly connected to a vibrating frame with spring suspension, in the proposed configuration a permanent magnet mass is allowed to move freely within a certain distance inside a frame-carrying coil and make impacts with spring end stops. The free motion distance allows matching lower vibration frequencies with an increase in the relative amplitude at resonance. Hence, significant power could be generated at low frequencies. A nonlinear mathematical model including impact and electromagnetic induction is derived. Study of the dynamic behaviour and investigation of the system performance is carried out with the aid of case study simulation. The proposed harvester shows a unique dynamic behaviour in which different ways of response of the internal relative oscillation appear over the range of input frequencies. A mathematical condition for the response type at which the higher relative amplitude appears is derived, followed by an investigation of the system resonant frequency and relative amplitude. The resonant frequency shows a dependency on the free motion distance as well as the utilized mass and spring stiffness. Simulation and experimental comparisons are carried out between the proposed harvester and similar conventional one tuned at the same input frequency. The power generated by the proposed harvesting configuration can reach more than 12 times at 11 Hz in the simulation case and about 10 times at 10 Hz in the experimental case. Simulation comparison also shows that this power magnification increases by matching lower frequencies which emphasize the advantages of the proposed configuration for low frequency operation.

Energyharvesting that uses low-frequency vibrations is attractive due to the availability of such vibrations throughout the ambient environment. Significant power generation at low-frequency vibrations, however, is challenging because the power flow decreases as the frequency decreases; moreover, designing a spring-mass system that is suitable for low-frequency-vibrationenergyharvesting is difficult. In this work, our proposed device overcomes both of these challenges by using a dual Halbach array and magnetic springs. Each Halbach array concentrates the magnetic-flux lines on one side of the array while suppressing the flux lines on the other side; therefore, a dual Halbach array allows for an interaction between the concentrated magnetic-flux lines and the same coil so that the maximum flux linkage occurs. During the experiment, vibration was applied in a horizontal direction to reduce the gravity effect on the Halbach-array structure. To achieve an increased power generation at low-amplitude and low-frequency vibrations, the magnetic structure of the dual Halbach array and the magnetic springs were optimized in terms of the operating frequency and the power density; subsequently, a prototype was fabricated and tested. The prototype device offers a normalized power density of 133.45 μW cm‑3 g‑2 that is much higher than those of recently reported electromagnetic energyharvesters; furthermore, it is capable of delivering a maximum average power of 1093 μW to a 44 Ω optimum load, at an 11 Hz resonant frequency and under a 0.5 g acceleration.

We propose a multi-modal vibrationenergyharvesting approach based on arrays of coupled levitated magnets. The equations of motion which include the magnetic nonlinearity and the electromagnetic damping are solved using the harmonic balance method coupled with the asymptotic numerical method. A multi-objective optimization procedure is introduced and performed using a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm for the cases of small magnet arrays in order to select the optimal solutions in term of performances by bringing the eigenmodes close to each other in terms of frequencies and amplitudes. Thanks to the nonlinear coupling and the modal interactions even for only three coupled magnets, the proposed method enable harvesting the vibrationenergy in the operating frequency range of 4.6-14.5 Hz, with a bandwidth of 190% and a normalized power of 20.2 {mW} {{cm}}-3 {{{g}}}-2.

This paper presents a unique arrangement of bistable composite plates with piezoelectric patches bonded to its surface to perform broadband vibration-based energyharvesting from ambient mechanical vibrations. These bistable nonlinear devices have been shown to have improved power generation compared to conventional resonant systems and can be designed to occupy smaller volumes than bistable magnetic cantilever systems. This paper presents the results of an optimization study of bistable composites that are capable of generating greater electrical power from a smaller space by discovering the correct geometric configuration for energyharvesting. Optimum solutions are investigated in a series of design parameter studies intended to reveal the complex interactions of the physical constraints and design requirements. The proposed approach considers the optimal choice of device aspect ratio, thickness, laminate stacking sequence, and piezoelectric surface area. Increased electrical output is found for geometries and piezoelectric configurations which have not been considered previously.

This paper presents an impact-based piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvester using freely movable spherical proof mass and MFC (Macro Fiber Composite) beams as piezoelectric cantilevers. When external vibration is applied, a metal sphere moves freely along the channel and collides with both ends of the cavity, which induces the vibration of parallel- connected MFCs and generates electric power. A proof-of-concept device having the form- factor of a wristwatch has been designed and tested. Moreover, spherical proof mass made of different materials has been tested to analyze the relationship between output power, long-term reliability, and audible noise level during operation. Maximum peak-to-peak open circuit voltage of 41.2V and average power of 908.7 μW have been obtained in response to a 3g vibration at 17Hz for device with parallel-connected MFC beams.

Vibration-based energyharvesters using piezoelectric materials have long made use of the cantilever beam structure. Surmounting the deficiencies in one-dimensional cantilever-based energyharvesters has been a major focus in the literature. In this work, we demonstrate a strategy of using two-dimensional beam shapes to harvestenergy from low frequency excitations. A characteristic Zigzag-shaped beam is created to compare against the two proposed two-dimensional beam shapes, all of which occupy a 25.4 × 25.4 mm2 area. In addition to maintaining the low-resonance bending frequency, the proposed beam shapes are designed with the goal of realizing a concentrated stress structure, whereby stress in the beam is concentrated in a single area where a piezoelectric layer may be placed, rather than being distributed throughout the beam. It is shown analytically, numerically, and experimentally that one of the proposed harvesters is able to provide significant increase in power production, when the base acceleration is set equal to 0.1 g, with only a minimal change in the resonant frequency compared to the current state-of-the-art Zigzag shape. This is accomplished by eliminating torsional effects, producing a more pure bending motion that is necessary for high electromechanical coupling. In addition, the proposed harvesters have a large effective beam tip whereby large tip mass may be placed while retaining a low-profile, resulting in a low volume harvester and subsequently large power density.

To power distributed wireless sensor networks on bridges, traditional power cables or battery replacement are excessively expensive or infeasible. This project develops two power harvesting technologies. First, a novel parametric frequency-increased generator (PFIG) is developed. The fabricated PFIG harvests the non-periodic and unprecedentedly low frequency (DC to 30 Hz) and low acceleration (0.55-9.8 m/s2) mechanical energy available on bridges with an average power > 2 μW. Prototype power conversion and storage electronics were designed and the harvester system was used to charge a capacitor from arbitrary bridge-like vibrations. Second, an RF scavenger operating at medium and shortwave frequencies has been designed and tested. Power scavenging at MHz frequencies allows for lower antenna directivities, reducing sensitivity to antenna positioning. Furthermore, ambient RF signals at these frequencies have higher power levels away from cities and residential areas compared to the UHF and SHF bands utilized for cellular communication systems. An RF power scavenger operating at 1 MHz along with power management and storage circuitry has been demonstrated. It powers a LED at a distance of 10 km from AM radio stations.

This paper presents two microfabrication approaches for multi-layer coils for vibration-energyharvesters. A magnet array is arranged with alternating north- and south-orientation to provide a rapidly changing magnetic field for high electromagnetic energy conversion. Multi-turn spiral coils on silicon wafer are aligned to the magnet array for maximum magnetic flux change. One type of coil is made out of 300 μm-thick copper that is electroplated with silicon mold, and the other is built on 25 μm-thick copper electroplated with photoresist mold. The low resistive coils fabricated by the first approach are integrated in a microfabricated energyharvester of 17 × 7 × 1.7 mm3 (=0.2 cm3) weighing 0.8 g, which generates 14.3 μW power output (into 0.7 Ω load) from vibration amplitude of 6 μm at 250 Hz. The latter approach is used to make a 1080-turn coil for a microfabricated electromagnetic energyharvester with magnet array and plastic spring. Though the size and weight of the harvester are only 44 × 20 × 6 mm3 (=5.3 cm3) and 12 g, respectively, it generates 1.04 mW power output (into 190 Ω load) when it is vibrated at 75 Hz with vibration amplitude of 220 μm.

Harvestingenergy from the surroundings has become a new trend in saving our environment. Among the established ones are solar panels, wind turbines and hydroelectric generators which have successfully grown in meeting the world's energy demand. However, for low powered electronic devices; especially when being placed in a remote area, micro scale energyharvesting is preferable. One of the popular methods is via vibrationenergy scavenging which converts mechanical energy (from vibration) to electrical energy by the effect of coupling between mechanical variables and electric or magnetic fields. As the voltage generated greatly depends on the geometry and size of the piezoelectric material, there is a need to define an optimum shape and configuration of the piezoelectric energy scavenger. In this research, mathematical derivations for unimorph piezoelectric energyharvester are presented. Simulation is done using MATLAB and COMSOL Multiphysics software to study the effect of varying the length and shape of the beam to the generated voltage. Experimental results comparing triangular and rectangular shaped piezoelectric beam are also presented.

Ambient energy in the form of mechanical kinetic energy is mostly considered waste energy. The process of scavenging and storing such energy is known as energyharvesting. Energyharvesting from mechanical vibration is performed using resonant energyharvesters (EH) with two major goals: enhancing the power scavenged at low frequency sources of vibrations, and increasing the efficiency of scavenging energy by increasing the bandwidth near the resonant frequency. Toward such goals, we propose a piezoelectric EH of a composite cantilever beam with a tip magnet facing another magnet at a distance. The composite cantilever consists of a piezoelectric bimorph with an extended polymer material. With the effect of the nonlinearity of the magnetic force, higher amplitude can be achieved because of the generated bi-stability oscillations of the cantilever beam under harmonic excitation. The contribution of the this paper is to demonstrate lowering the achieved resonant frequency down to 17 Hz compared to 100 Hz for the piezoelectric bimorph beam without the extended polymer. Depending on the magnetic distance, the beam responses are divided to mono and bi-stable regions, for which we investigate static and dynamic behaviors. The dynamics of the system and the frequency and voltage responses of the beam are obtained using the shooting method.

As an alternative to traditional cantilever beam structures and their evolutions, a flexible beam based, interdigital structure, vibrationenergyharvester has been presented and investigated. The proposed interdigital-shaped oscillator consists of a rectangular flexible frame and series of cantilever beams interdigitally bonded to it. In order to achieve low frequency and wide-bandwidth harvesting, Young’s modulus of materials, frame size and the amount of the cantilevers have been studied systematically. The measured frequency responses of the designed device (PDMS frame, quintuple piezoelectric cantilever beams) show a 460% increase in bandwidth below 80Hz. When excited at an acceleration of 1.0 g, the energyharvester achieves to a maximum open-circuit voltage of 65V, and the maximum output power 4.5 mW.

Most MEMS piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvesters involve either cantilever-based topologies, doubly-clamped beams or membrane structures. While these traditional designs offer simplicity, their frequency response for broadband excitation are typically inadequate. This paper presents a new integrated cantilever-on-membrane design that attempts to both optimise the strain distribution on a piezoelectric membrane resonator and improve the power responsiveness of the harvester for broadband excitation. While a classic membrane-based resonator has the potential to theoretically offer wider operational frequency bandwidth than its cantilever counterpart, the addition of a centred proof mass neutralises its otherwise high strain energy regions. The proposed topology addresses this issue by relocating the proof mass onto subsidiary cantilevers and integrates the merits of both the membrane and the cantilever designs. When experimentally subjected to a band-limited white noise excitation, up to approximately two folds of power enhancement was observed for the new membrane harvester compared to a classic plain membrane device.

Vibrationenergyharvesting is now receiving more interest as a means for powering intelligent wireless sensor systems. In this paper, a resonant electromagnetic vibrationenergyharvester (VEH) employing double cantilever to convert low-frequency vibrationenergy into electrical energy is presented. The VEH is made up of two cantilever beams, a coil, and magnetic circuits. The electric output performances of the proposed electromagnetic VEH have been investigated. With the enhancement of turns number N, the optimum peak power of electromagnetic VEH increases sharply and the resonance frequency deceases gradually. When the vibration acceleration is 0.5 g, we obtain the optimum output voltage and power of 9.04 V and 50.8 mW at frequency of 14.9 Hz, respectively. In a word, the prototype device was successfully developed and the experimental results exhibit a great enhancement in the output power and bandwidth compared with other traditional electromagnetic VEHs. Remarkably, the proposed resonant electromagnetic VEH have great potential for applying in intelligent wireless sensor systems.

This paper proposes a novel retrofittable approach for dual-functional energy-harvesting and robust vibration control by integrating the tuned mass damper (TMD) and electromagnetic shunted resonant damping. The viscous dissipative element between the TMD and primary system is replaced by an electromagnetic transducer shunted with a resonant RLC circuit. An efficient gradient based numeric method is presented for the parameter optimization in the control framework for vibration suppression and energyharvesting. A case study is performed based on the Taipei 101 TMD. It is found that by tuning the TMD resonance and circuit resonance close to that of the primary structure, the electromagnetic resonant-shunt TMD achieves the enhanced effectiveness and robustness of double-mass series TMDs, without suffering from the significantly amplified motion stroke. It is also observed that the parameters and performances optimized for vibration suppression are close to those optimized for energyharvesting, and the performance is not sensitive to the resistance of the charging circuit or electrical load. PMID:23918165

Mode shapes in the design of mechanical energyharvesters, as a means of performance increase, have been largely overlooked. Currently, the vast majority of energyharvester designs employ some variation of a single-degree-of-freedom cantilever, and the mode shapes of such beams are well known. This is especially true for the first bending mode, which is almost exclusively the chosen vibration mode for energyharvesting. Two-dimensional beam shapes (those which curve, meander, spiral, etc., in a plane) have recently gained research interest, as they offer freedom to modify the vibration characteristics of the harvester beam for achieving higher power density. In this study, the second bending mode shape of the "Elephant" two-dimensional beam shape is examined, and its interaction with the first bending mode is evaluated. A combinatory mode shape created by using mass loading structural modification to lower the second bending modal frequency was found to interact with the first bending mode. This is possible since the first two bending modes do not share common areas of displacement. The combined mode shape is shown to produce the most power of any of the considered mode shapes.

This paper reports on the design, fabrication and testing of an innovative 33-mode piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvester (VEH). This system is able to change its resonant frequency in real time to follow the main frequency of a vibration source. The system proposed in this paper enables to adapt VEH characteristics (resonant frequency, electrical damping) to vibration parameters variations (frequency and amplitude) in order to optimize the extraction of energy and then the output power at any time. This solution allows up to 40% of resonant frequency tuning ratio; moreover, the adaptation is made in real time and the consumption of the regulation electronic is less than 10% of the VEH output power (480μW@0.1g-276Hz).

This study presents a novel hybrid system that combines the power generated simultaneously by a vibration-based Electromagnetic (EM) harvester and a UHF band RF harvester. The novel hybrid scavenger interface uses a power management circuit in 180 nm CMOS technology to step-up and to regulate the combined output. At the first stage of the system, the RF harvester generates positive DC output with a 7-stage threshold compensated rectifier, while the EM harvester generates negative DC output with a self-powered AC/DC negative doubler circuit. At the second stage, the generated voltages are serially added, stepped-up with an on-chip charge pump circuit, and regulated to a typical battery voltage of 3 V. Test results indicate that the hybrid operation enables generation of 9 μW at 3 V output for a wide range of input stimulations, which could not be attained with either harvesting mode by itself. Moreover the hybrid system behaves as a typical battery, and keeps the output voltage stable at 3 V up to 18 μW of output power. The presented system is the first battery-like harvester to our knowledge that generates energy from two independent sources and regulates the output to a stable DC voltage.

Converting vibrations to a usable form of energy has been the topic of many recent investigations. The ultimate goal is to convert ambient or aeroelastic vibrations to operate low-power consumption devices, such as microelectromechanical systems, heath monitoring sensors, wireless sensors or replacing small batteries that have a finite life span or would require hard and expensive maintenance. The transduction mechanisms used for transforming vibrations to electric power include: electromagnetic, electrostatic, and piezoelectric mechanisms. Because it can be used to harvestenergy over a wide range of frequencies and because of its ease of application, the piezoelectric option has attracted significant interest. In this work, we investigate the performance of different types of piezoelectric energyharvesters. The objective is to design and enhance the performance of these harvesters. To this end, distributed-parameter and phenomenological models of these harvesters are developed. Global analysis of these models is then performed using modern methods of nonlinear dynamics. In the first part of this Dissertation, global nonlinear distributed-parameter models for piezoelectric energyharvesters under direct and parametric excitations are developed. The method of multiple scales is then used to derive nonlinear forms of the governing equations and associated boundary conditions, which are used to evaluate their performance and determine the effects of the nonlinear piezoelectric coefficients on their behavior in terms of softening or hardening. In the second part, we assess the influence of the linear and nonlinear parameters on the dynamic behavior of a wing-based piezoaeroelastic energyharvester. The system is composed of a rigid airfoil that is constrained to pitch and plunge and supported by linear and nonlinear torsional and flexural springs with a piezoelectric coupling attached to the plunge degree of freedom. Linear analysis is performed to determine the

This paper presents a general model and its experimental validation for electrically tunable electromagnetic energyharvesters. Electrical tuning relies on the adjustment of the electrical load so that the maximum output power of the energyharvester occurs at a frequency which is different from the mechanical resonant frequency of the energyharvester. Theoretical analysis shows that for this approach to be feasible the electromagnetic vibrationenergy harvester’s coupling factor must be maximized so that its resonant frequency can be tuned with the minimum decrease of output power. Two different-sized electromagnetic energyharvesters were built and tested to validate the model. Experimentally, the micro-scale energyharvester has a coupling factor of 0.0035 and an untuned resonant frequency of 70.05 Hz. When excited at 30 mg, it was tuned by 0.23 Hz by changing its capacitive load from 0 to 4000 nF its effective tuning range is 0.15 Hz for a capacitive load variation from 0 to 1500 nF. The macro-scale energyharvester has a coupling factor of 552.25 and an untuned resonant frequency of 95.1 Hz and 95.5 Hz when excited at 10 mg and 25 mg, respectively. When excited at 10 mg, it was tuned by 3.8 Hz by changing its capacitive load from 0 to 1400 nF it has an effective tuning range of 3.5 Hz for a capacitive load variation from 0 to 1200 nF. When excited at 25 mg, its resonant frequency was tuned by 4.2 Hz by changing its capacitive load from 0 to 1400 nF it has an effective tuning range of about 5 Hz. Experimental results were found to agree with the theoretical analysis to within 10%.

This paper describes extremely simple configuration of novel vibrationalenergyharvester, which can harness low frequency (less than 5 Hz, such as various environmental vibrations) over a broad frequency band for the first time. A design that utilizes a phenomenon called stochastic resonance can give significantly enhanced vibration mode for increasing efficiency, and simple bi-stable cantilever with tip mass installed a basement vertically fulfils the requirements for stochastic resonance. We fabricated bi-stable cantilever with tip mass and validated whether the cantilever could be used as an effective low frequency vibrationenergyharvester. In the experiment, when a 1 Hz periodic force and environmental noise vibration were applied, stochastic resonance occurred. The amplitude of the energyharvester increased over tenfold (over 30 mm).

This paper presents an electromagnetic energyharvester using an array of rectangular permanent magnets as springless proof mass and ferrofluid as a lubricating material. Lateral motion of the multi-pole magnet array generates voltage across an array of copper windings formed under the aluminum channel in response to low frequency external vibrations such as human-body-induced motion. A proof-of-concept device has been fabricated and output voltage has been measured at various input frequencies and accelerations provided by a vibration exciter. Device with ferrofluid lubrication generated maximum open-circuit voltage of 0.47V at 3g vibration at 12Hz, which is 8% higher than that of the device without lubricant. Maximum output power of 71.26μW has been obtained at 40.8Ω with the device with ferrofluid lubrication.

The aim of this contribution is to report and discuss a preliminary study and rough optimization of a novel concept of MEMS device for vibrationenergyharvesting, based on a multi-modal dynamic behavior. The circular-shaped device features Four-Leaf Clover-like (FLC) double spring-mass cascaded systems, kept constrained to the surrounding frame by means of four straight beams. The combination of flexural bending behavior of the slender beams plus deformable parts of the petals enable to populate the desired vibration frequency range with a number of resonant modes, and improve the energy conversion capability of the micro-transducer. The harvester device, conceived for piezoelectric mechanical into electric energy conversion, is intended to sense environmental vibrations and, thereby, its geometry is optimized to have a large concentration of resonant modes in a frequency range below 5-10 kHz. The results of FEM (Finite Element Method) based analysis performed in ANSYSTM Workbench are reported, both concerning modal and harmonic response, providing important indications related to the device geometry optimization. The analysis reported in this work is limited to the sole mechanical modeling of the proposed MEMS harvester device concept. Future developments of the study will encompass the inclusion of piezoelectric conversion in the FEM simulations, in order to have indications of the actual power levels achievable with the proposed harvester concept. Furthermore, the results of the FEM studies here discussed, will be validated against experimental data, as soon as the MEMS resonator specimens, currently under fabrication, are ready for testing.

Due to their two-way electromechanical coupling effect, piezoelectric transducers can be used to synthesize passive vibration control schemes, e.g., RLC circuit with the integration of inductance and resistance elements that is conceptually similar to damped vibration absorber. Meanwhile, the wide usage of wireless sensors has led to the recent enthusiasm of developing piezoelectric-based energyharvesting devices that can convert ambient vibratory energy into useful electrical energy. It can be shown that the integration of circuitry elements such as resistance and inductance can benefit the energyharvesting capability. Here we explore a dual-purpose circuit that can facilitate simultaneous vibration suppression and energyharvesting. It is worth noting that the goal of vibration suppression and the goal of energyharvesting may not always complement each other. That is, the maximization of vibration suppression doesn't necessarily lead to the maximization of energyharvesting, and vice versa. In this research, we develop a fuzzy-logic based algorithm to decide the proper selection of circuitry elements to balance between the two goals. As the circuitry elements can be online tuned, this research yields an adaptive circuitry concept for the effective manipulation of system energy and vibration suppression. Comprehensive analyses are carried out to demonstrate the concept and operation.

The resonance between piezoelectric vibrator and the vibration source is the key to maximize the ambient vibrationenergyharvesting by using piezoelectric generator. In this paper, the factors that influence the output power of a single piezoelectric vibrator are analyzed. The effect of geometry size (length, thickness, width of piezoelectric chip and thickness of metal shim) of a single cantilever piezoelectric vibrator to the output power is analyzed and simulated with the help of MATLAB (matrix laboratory). The curves that output power varies with geometry size are obtained when the displacement and load at the free end are constant. Then the paper points out multi-resonant frequency piezoelectric power generation, including cantilever multi-resonant frequency piezoelectric power generation and disc type multi-resonant frequency piezoelectric generation. Multi-resonant frequency of cantilever piezoelectric power generation can be realized by placing different quality mass at the free end, while disc type multi-resonant frequency piezoelectric generation can be realized through series and parallel connection of piezoelectric vibrator.

This paper presents a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) piezoelectric power generator array for vibrationenergyharvesting. A complete design flow of the vibration-based energyharvester using the finite element method (FEM) is proposed. The modal analysis is selected to calculate the resonant frequency of the harvester, and harmonic analysis is performed to investigate the influence of the geometric parameters on the output voltage. Based on simulation results, a MEMS Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) cantilever array with an integrated large Si proof mass is designed and fabricated to improve output voltage and power. Test results show that the fabricated generator, with five cantilever beams (with unit dimensions of about 3 × 2.4 × 0.05 mm3) and an individual integrated Si mass dimension of about 8 × 12.4 × 0.5 mm3, produces a output power of 66.75 μW, or a power density of 5.19 μW∙mm-3∙g-2 with an optimal resistive load of 220 kΩ from 5 m/s2 vibration acceleration at its resonant frequency of 234.5 Hz. In view of high internal impedance characteristic of the PZT generator, an efficient autonomous power conditioning circuit, with the function of impedance matching, energy storage and voltage regulation, is then presented, finding that the efficiency of the energy storage is greatly improved and up to 64.95%. The proposed self-supplied energy generator with power conditioning circuit could provide a very promising complete power supply solution for wireless sensor node loads. PMID:24556670

This paper presents a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) piezoelectric power generator array for vibrationenergyharvesting. A complete design flow of the vibration-based energyharvester using the finite element method (FEM) is proposed. The modal analysis is selected to calculate the resonant frequency of the harvester, and harmonic analysis is performed to investigate the influence of the geometric parameters on the output voltage. Based on simulation results, a MEMS Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) cantilever array with an integrated large Si proof mass is designed and fabricated to improve output voltage and power. Test results show that the fabricated generator, with five cantilever beams (with unit dimensions of about 3 × 2.4 × 0.05 mm3) and an individual integrated Si mass dimension of about 8 × 12.4 × 0.5 mm3, produces a output power of 66.75 μW, or a power density of 5.19 μW·mm−3·g−2 with an optimal resistive load of 220 kΩ from 5 m/s2 vibration acceleration at its resonant frequency of 234.5 Hz. In view of high internal impedance characteristic of the PZT generator, an efficient autonomous power conditioning circuit, with the function of impedance matching, energy storage and voltage regulation, is then presented, finding that the efficiency of the energy storage is greatly improved and up to 64.95%. The proposed self-supplied energy generator with power conditioning circuit could provide a very promising complete power supply solution for wireless sensor node loads. PMID:24556670

Piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvesters with multi-layer stacked structures have been developed. They consist of multi-layer beams, of zigzag configurations, with rigid masses attached between the beams. The rigid masses, which also serve as spacers, are attached to each layer to tune the frequencies of the harvester. Close resonance frequencies and considerable power output can be achieved in multiple modes by varying the positions of the masses. A modal approach is introduced to determine the modal performance conveniently using the mass ratio and the modal electromechanical coupling coefficient, and the required modal parameters are derived using the finite element method. Mass ratio represents the influence of modal mechanical behaviour on the power density. Since the modes with larger mass ratios cause the remaining modes to have smaller mass ratios and lower power densities, a screening process using the modal approach is developed to determine the optimal or near-optimal performance of the harvesters when altering mass positions. This procedure obviates the need for full analysis by pre-selecting the harvester configurations with close resonances and favourable values of mass ratio initially. Furthermore, the multi-layer stacked designs using the modal approach can be used to develop harvesters with different sizes with the power ranging from microwatts to milliwatts.

This paper presents experiments on how to approach the physical limits on power from vibrationenergyharvesting under displacement-constrained operation. A MEMS electrostatic vibrationenergyharvester with voltage-control of the system stiffness is used for this purpose. The power saturation problem, when the proof mass displacement reaches maximum amplitude for sufficient acceleration amplitude, is shifted to higher accelerations by use of load optimization and tunable electromechanical coupling k2. Measurement results show that harvested power can be made to follow the optimal velocity-damped generator also for a range of accelerations that implies displacement constraints. Comparing to the saturated power, the power increases 1.5 times with the optimal load and an electromechanical coupling k2=8.7%. This value is 2.3 times for a higher coupling k2=17.9%. The obtained system effectiveness is beyond 60% under the optimization. This work also shows a first demonstration of reaching optimal power in the intermediate acceleration-range between the two extremes of maximum efficiency and maximum power transfer.

Energyharvesting using cantilever piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvesters excited by Gaussian broadband random base excitation is considered. The optimal design and analysis of energyharvesters under random excitation is normally performed using the mean and standard deviation of a response quantity of interest, such as the voltage. An alternative approach based on the statistics of the peak voltage is developed in this paper. Three extreme response characteristics, namely (a) level crossing, (b) response peaks above certain level, and (c) fractional time spend above a certain level, have been employed. Two cases, namely the harvesting circuit with and without an inductor, have been considered. Exact closed-form expressions have been derived for number of level crossings, statistics of response peaks and fractional time spend above a certain level for the output voltage. It is shown that these quantities can be related to the standard deviation of the voltage and its derivative with respect to time. Direct numerical simulation has been used to validate the analytical expressions. Based on the analytical results, closed-form expressions for optimal system parameters have been proposed. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the applicability of the analytical results.

Topological design of miniaturized resonating structures capable of harvesting electrical energy from low frequency environmental mechanical vibrations encounters a particular physical challenge, due to the conflicting design requirements: low resonating frequency and miniaturization. In this paper structural static stiffness to resist undesired lateral deformation is included into the objective function, to prevent the structure from degenerating and forcing the solution to be manufacturable. The rational approximation of material properties interpolation scheme is introduced to deal with the problems of local vibration and instability of the low density area induced by the design dependent body forces. Both density and level set based topology optimization (TO) methods are investigated in their parameterization, sensitivity analysis, and applicability for low frequency energyharvester TO problems. Continuum based variation formulations for sensitivity analysis and the material derivative based shape sensitivity analysis are presented for the density method and the level set method, respectively; and their similarities and differences are highlighted. An external damper is introduced to simulate the energy output of the resonator due to electrical damping and the Rayleigh proportional damping is used for mechanical damping. Optimization results for different scenarios are tested to illustrate the influences of dynamic and static loads. To demonstrate manufacturability, the designs are built to scale using a 3D microfabrication method and assembled into vibrationenergyharvester prototypes. The fabricated devices based on the optimal results from using different TO techniques are tested and compared with the simulation results. The structures obtained by the level set based TO method require less post-processing before fabrication and the structures obtained by the density based TO method have resonating frequency as low as 100 Hz. The electrical voltage response

A resonant vibrationenergyharvester typically comprises of a clamped anchor and a vibrating shuttle with a proof mass. Piezoelectric materials are embedded in locations of high strain in order to transduce mechanical deformation into electric charge. Conventional design for piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvesters (PVEH) usually utilizes piezoelectric material and metal electrode layers covering the entire surface area of the cantilever with no consideration provided to examining the trade-off involved with respect to maximizing output power. This paper reports on the theory and experimental verification underpinning optimization of the active electrode area of a cantilevered PVEH in order to maximize output power. The analytical formulation utilizes Euler-Bernoulli beam theory to model the mechanical response of the cantilever. The expression for output power is reduced to a fifth order polynomial expression as a function of the electrode area. The maximum output power corresponds to the case when 44% area of the cantilever is covered by electrode metal. Experimental results are also provided to verify the theory.

Vibration-based energyharvesters using piezoelectric materials have long made use of the cantilever beam structure. Surmounting the deficiencies in one-dimensional cantilever-based energyharvesters has been a major focus in the literature. In this work, we demonstrate a strategy of using two-dimensional beam shapes to harvestenergy from low frequency excitations. A characteristic Zigzag-shaped beam is created to compare against the two proposed two-dimensional beam shapes, all of which occupy a 25.4 × 25.4 mm{sup 2} area. In addition to maintaining the low-resonance bending frequency, the proposed beam shapes are designed with the goal of realizing a concentrated stress structure, whereby stress in the beam is concentrated in a single area where a piezoelectric layer may be placed, rather than being distributed throughout the beam. It is shown analytically, numerically, and experimentally that one of the proposed harvesters is able to provide significant increase in power production, when the base acceleration is set equal to 0.1 g, with only a minimal change in the resonant frequency compared to the current state-of-the-art Zigzag shape. This is accomplished by eliminating torsional effects, producing a more pure bending motion that is necessary for high electromechanical coupling. In addition, the proposed harvesters have a large effective beam tip whereby large tip mass may be placed while retaining a low-profile, resulting in a low volume harvester and subsequently large power density.

A magnetoelectric (ME) vibrationenergyharvester has been designed to scavenge sufficient energy from ambient vibration with arbitrary motion directions in a plane and over a range of frequencies. In the harvester, a circular-cross-section cantilever rod is adopted to extract the vibrationenergy due to its ability to host accelerations in arbitrary in-plane motion directions. The magnetic coupling between the magnet and the ME transducer results in nonlinear oscillation of the cantilever rod with increased frequency bandwidth. To achieve optimal vibrationenergyharvesting performance, the effects of the nonlinear vibration and the harvester parameters including the magnetic circuit and the separation distance on the electrical output and the␣working bandwidth are analyzed. The experimental results show that the harvester can scavenge vibrationenergy in arbitrary in-plane directions, exhibiting a bandwidth of 4.0 Hz and maximum power of 0.22 mW at acceleration of 0.6 g (with g = 9.8 m s-2).

We have developed a Si-based microelectromechanical systems sensor with high sensitivity for specific low-frequency vibration-sensing and energy-harvesting applications. The low-frequency vibration sensor contains a disk proof mass attached to two or three lead zirconate titanate (PZT) S-shape spring flexures. To obtain a faster and less expensive prototype, the design and optimization of the sensor structure are studied via finite-element method analysis. To validate the sensor structure to detect low-frequency vibration, the effects of geometrical dimensions, including the width and diameter of the S-shape spring of the proof mass, were analyzed and measured. The functional features, including the mechanical property and electrical performance of the vibration sensor, were evaluated. The results demonstrated that a very low resonant frequency of <11 Hz and a reasonably high voltage output of 7.5 mV at acceleration of >0.2g can be typically achieved. Given a low-frequency vibration sensor with ideal performance and mass fabrication, many advanced civilian and industrial applications can be possibly realized. PMID:27587151

We have developed a Si-based microelectromechanical systems sensor with high sensitivity for specific low-frequency vibration-sensing and energy-harvesting applications. The low-frequency vibration sensor contains a disk proof mass attached to two or three lead zirconate titanate (PZT) S-shape spring flexures. To obtain a faster and less expensive prototype, the design and optimization of the sensor structure are studied via finite-element method analysis. To validate the sensor structure to detect low-frequency vibration, the effects of geometrical dimensions, including the width and diameter of the S-shape spring of the proof mass, were analyzed and measured. The functional features, including the mechanical property and electrical performance of the vibration sensor, were evaluated. The results demonstrated that a very low resonant frequency of <11 Hz and a reasonably high voltage output of 7.5 mV at acceleration of >0.2g can be typically achieved. Given a low-frequency vibration sensor with ideal performance and mass fabrication, many advanced civilian and industrial applications can be possibly realized.

This work deals with the dynamic bending and energyharvesting characteristics of giant magnetostrictive cantilevers with resonant tuning both numerically and experimentally. The giant magnetostrictive cantilever is fabricated using a thin Terfenol-D layer, SUS layer, movable proof mass, etc, and, is designed to automatically adjust its own resonant frequency to match the external vibration frequency in real time. Three-dimensional finite element analysis was conducted, and the resonant frequency, induced voltage and stress in the magnetostrictive cantilevers were predicted. The resonant frequency and induced voltage were also measured, and comparison was made between simulation and experiment. The time-varying behavior and self-tuning ability are discussed in detail.

Vibrationalenergyharvesting devices are often designed in a manner analogous to classical dynamic vibration absorbers (DVAs). An electromechanical mass-spring system is devised so as to resonate at the frequency most dominant in the environmental vibration spectrum; the consequent device oscillation is converted to a electrical signal which is harnessed for immediate usage or as a charging mechanism for a battery. The DVA is likewise designed but with the intention of inducing substantial inertial influence upon a host structure for vibration control purposes, either to globally dampen the vibration of the main body or, in an undamped configuration to "absorb" the primary system vibration at a single frequency. This paper describes the development of an electromechanical mass-spring-damper which seeks to serve both goals of passive vibration control and energyharvesting. The device utilizes a piezoelectric film spring and a distributed mass layer so as to be suitable for the attenuation of surface vibrations and to convert a portion of the absorbed energy into electric power. The development and design of the device are presented and the results of realistic tests are provided to show both the potentials and the challenges encountered when attempting to superpose the goals of vibration control and energyharvesting.

This paper presents an advanced study including the design, characterization and theoretical analysis of a capacitive vibrationenergyharvester. Although based on a resonant electromechanical device, it is intended for operation in a wide frequency band due to the combination of stop-end effects and a strong biasing electrical field. The electrostatic transducer has an interdigited comb geometry with in-plane motion, and is obtained through a simple batch process using two masks. A continuous conditioning circuit is used for the characterization of the transducer. A nonlinear model of the coupled system ‘transduce-conditioning circuit’ is presented and analyzed employing two different semi-analytical techniques together with precise numerical modelling. Experimental results are in good agreement with results obtained from numerical modelling. With the 1 g amplitude of harmonic external acceleration at atmospheric pressure, the system transducer-conditioning circuit has a half-power bandwidth of more than 30% and converts more than 2 µW of the power of input mechanical vibrations over the range of 140 and 160 Hz. The harvester has also been characterized under stochastic noise-like input vibrations.

We report the design of piezoelectric MEMS cantilevers formed on a silicon-on-insulator wafer to efficiently harvest electrical power from harmonic vibration with a frequency of approximately 30 Hz. Numerical simulation indicates that a >4-µm-thick top silicon layer and >3-µm-thick piezoelectric film are preferable to maximize the output electrical power. An in-plane structure of the cantilever is also designed retaining the footprint of the cantilever. The simulation results indicate that the output power is maximized when the length ratio of the proof mass to the cantilever beam is 1.5. To ensure the accuracy of the simulation, we fabricated and characterized cantilevers with a 10-µm-thick top silicon layer and a 1.8-µm-thick piezoelectric film, resulting in 0.21 µW at a vibration of 0.5 m/s2 and 25.1 Hz. The measured output power is in agreement with the simulated value, meaning that the design is significantly reliable for low-frequency vibrationenergyharvesters.

This paper presents a design of a piezoelectric hardening-type nonlinear vibrationenergyharvester which has widened resonance band while maintaining the same peak performance at the resonance frequency as that of the reference linear harvester. To this end, a pair of mechanical stoppers and a pair of repulsive magnets are introduced in this study. An experimental prototype device is designed by using a stainless steel-based piezoelectric cantilever, and numerical simulations and experiments are conducted to examine the validity of the presented design strategy. It is concluded that using the magnets to shift the resonance peak toward the lower frequency and using stoppers to expanding the resonance band toward the higher frequency can broaden the resonance band effectively maintaining the peak response. The damping due to the contact of the tip mass with the stopper is one of the key parameters which should be as small as possible to enhance the band widening effect.

With the advent of wireless sensors, there has been an increasing amount of research in the area of energyharvesting, particularly from vibration, to power these devices. An interesting application is the possibility of harvestingenergy from the track-side vibration due to a passing train, as this energy could be used to power remote sensors mounted on the track for strutural health monitoring, for example. This paper describes a fundamental study to determine how much energy could be harvested from a passing train. Using a time history of vertical vibration measured on a sleeper, the optimum mechanical parameters of a linear energyharvesting device are determined. Numerical and analytical investigations are both carried out. It is found that the optimum amount of energyharvested per unit mass is proportional to the product of the square of the input acceleration amplitude and the square of the input duration. For the specific case studied, it was found that the maximum energy that could be harvested per unit mass of the oscillator is about 0.25 J/kg at a frequency of about 17 Hz. The damping ratio for the optimum harvester was found to be about 0.0045, and the corresponding amplitude of the relative displacement of the mass is approximately 5 mm.

This paper presents a novel piezoelectric energyharvesting device created with the flip-chip bonding of two different parts, one is a MEMS die which plays the role of inertial mass and the other is an associate CMOS chip anchored to the vibrating environment. The flip-chip bonding is performed between the MEMS die, which consists of four piezoelectric beams connected to four PADs or anchor points, and a test PCB, which is used to validate the feasibility of the whole assembled system. The resulting system in package is a proof of concept of a novel design concept that increases the extracted power from an ambient vibration. FEM simulations have been carried out to study the mechanical behaviour of the who le system. Moreover, the fabrication of the piezoelectric die and the test PCB has been successfully performed, as well as their flip-chip integration.

A cantilever-type resonant piezoelectric generator (RPG) has been designed by gluing a PZT patch working in d31 mode onto a glass fibre reinforced composite cantilever beam with a discrete mass applied on its free end. The electrical and dynamic behaviour of the RPG prototype has been investigated by carrying out laboratory tests aimed to assess the effect of definite design parameters, specifically the electric resistance load and the excitation frequency. Results showed that an optimum resistance load exists, at which power generation is maximized. Moreover, it has been showed that power generation is strongly influenced by the vibration frequency highlighting that, at resonance, output power can be increased by more than one order of magnitude. Possible applications include inertial resonant harvester for energy recovery from vibrating machines, sea waves or wind flux and self-powering of wireless sensor nodes.

Small-scale vibrationenergyharvesters that respond efficiently at low frequencies are challenging to realize. This paper describes the design and implementation of one such harvester, which achieves a high volumetric Figure of Merit (FoMv = 2.6% at 11.50 Hz) at the scale of a C-type battery and outperforms other state-of-the-art devices in the sub 20 Hz frequency range. The device employs a 2 Degree-of-Freedom velocity-amplified approach and electromagnetic transduction. The harvester comprises two masses oscillating one inside the other, between four sets of magnetic springs. Collisions between the two masses transfer momentum from the heavier to the lighter mass, exploiting velocity amplification. The paper first presents guidelines for designing and optimizing the transduction mechanism, before a nonlinear numerical model for the system dynamics is developed. Experimental characterisation of the harvester design is then presented to validate both the transducer optimization and the dynamics model. The resulting high FoMV demonstrates the effectiveness of the device for low frequency applications, such as human motion.

Regenerative semi-active suspensions can capture the previously dissipated vibrationenergy and convert it to usable electrical energy for powering on-board electronic devices, while achieve both the better ride comfort and improved road handling performance at the same time when certain control is applied. To achieve this objective, the power electronics interface circuit connecting the energyharvester and the electrical loads, which can perform simultaneous vibration control and energyharvesting function is in need. This paper utilized a buck-boost converter for simultaneous semi-active vibration control and energyharvesting with electromagnetic regenerative shock absorber, which utilizes a rotational generator to converter the vibrationenergy to electricity. It has been found that when the circuit works in discontinuous current mode (DCM), the ratio between the input voltage and current is only related to the duty cycle of the switch pulse width modulation signal. Using this property, the buck-boost converter can be used to perform semi-active vibration control by controlling the load connected between the terminals of the generator in the electromagnetic shock absorber. While performing the vibration control, the circuit always draw current from the shock absorber and the suspension remain dissipative, and the shock absorber takes no additional energy to perform the vibration control. The working principle and dynamics of the circuit has been analyzed and simulations were performed to validate the concept.

A detailed analysis of a mono-stable vertical diamagnetic levitation (VDL) system for optimal vibrationenergyharvesting is presented. Initial studies showed that simple analytical techniques such as the dipole model and the image method provide useful guideline for understanding the potential of a diamagnetic levitation system, however, it is discussed here that the more accurate semi-analytical techniques such as the thin coil model and the discrete volume method are needed for quantitative optimization and design of the VDL system. With the semi-analytical techniques, the influence of the cylindrical geometry of the floating magnet, the lifting magnet and the diamagnetic plate are parametrically studied to assess their effects on the levitation gap, size of the system and the natural frequency. For efficient vibrationenergyharvesting using the VDL system, ways to mitigate eddy current damping and a coil geometry for transduction are critically discussed. With the optimized parameters, an experimental system is realized which showed a hardening type nonlinearity. The results show an overall efficiency of 1.54 percent, a root mean square (rms) power output of 1.72 μW when excited at a peak acceleration of 0.081 m/s2 and at a frequency of 2.1 Hz.

An electromagnetic (EM) low frequency vibrationenergyharvester is newly developed based on dual Halbach array which is suspended in two magnetic springs. Each Halbach array concentrates the magnetic flux lines on one side of the array while suppressing the flux lines on the other side. Dual Halbach array allows the concentrated magnetic flux lines to interact with the same coil in a way where maximum flux linkage occurs. With the goal of higher power generation in low amplitude and low frequency vibrations, the magnetic structures (both the dual Halbach array and the magnetic springs) were optimized in terms of operating frequency and power density. A prototype was fabricated and tested. It is capable of delivering maximum 1.09mW average power to 44Ω optimum load at 11Hz resonant frequency and 0.5g acceleration. The prototype device offers 33.4μWcm-3 average power density which is much higher than recently reported electromagnetic energyharvesters.

This article identifies and studies key parameters that characterize a horizontal diamagnetic levitation (HDL) mechanism based low frequency vibrationenergyharvester with the aim of enhancing performance metrics such as efficiency and volume figure of merit (FoMv). The HDL mechanism comprises of three permanent magnets and two diamagnetic plates. Two of the magnets, aka lifting magnets, are placed co-axially at a distance such that each attract a centrally located magnet, aka floating magnet, to balance its weight. This floating magnet is flanked closely by two diamagnetic plates which stabilize the levitation in the axial direction. The influence of the geometry of the floating magnet, the lifting magnet and the diamagnetic plate are parametrically studied to quantify their effects on the size, stability of the levitation mechanism and the resonant frequency of the floating magnet. For vibrationenergyharvesting using the HDL mechanism, a coil geometry and eddy current damping are critically discussed. Based on the analysis, an efficient experimental system is setup which showed a softening frequency response with an average system efficiency of 25.8% and a FoMv of 0.23% when excited at a root mean square acceleration of 0.0546 m/s2 and at frequency of 1.9 Hz.

A bridge vibrationenergyharvester has been proposed in this paper using a tuned dual-mass damper system, named hereafter Tuned Mass Generator (TMG). A linear electromagnetic transducer has been applied to harvest and make use of the unused reserve of energy the aforementioned damper system absorbs. The benefits of using dual-mass systems over single-mass systems for power generation have been clarified according to the theory of vibrations. TMG parameters have been determined considering multi-domain parameters, and TMG has been tuned using a newly proposed parameter design method. Theoretical analysis results have shown that for effective energyharvesting, it is essential that TMG has robustness against uncertainties in bridge vibrations and tuning errors, and the proposed parameter design method for TMG has demonstrated this feature.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film piezoelectric microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based vibrationenergyharvesters with two different designs are presented. These harvesters consist of a silicon cantilever, a silicon proof mass, and a ZnO piezoelectric layer. Design I has a large ZnO piezoelectric element and Design II has two smaller and equally sized ZnO piezoelectric elements; however, the total area of ZnO thin film in two designs is equal. The ZnO thin film is deposited by means of radio-frequency magnetron sputtering method and is characterized by means of XRD and SEM techniques. These ZnO energyharvesters are fabricated by using MEMS micromachining. The natural frequencies of the fabricated ZnO energyharvesters are simulated and tested. The test results show that these two energyharvesters with different designs have almost the same natural frequency. Then, the output performance of different ZnO energyharvesters is tested in detail. The effects of series connection and parallel connection of two ZnO elements on the load voltage and power are also analyzed. The experimental results show that the energyharvester with two ZnO piezoelectric elements in parallel connection in Design II has higher load voltage and higher load power than the fabricated energyharvesters with other designs. Its load voltage is 2.06 V under load resistance of 1 MΩ and its maximal load power is 1.25 μW under load resistance of 0.6 MΩ, when it is excited by an external vibration with frequency of 1300.1 Hz and acceleration of 10 m/s(2). By contrast, the load voltage of the energyharvester of Design I is 1.77 V under 1 MΩ resistance and its maximal load power is 0.98 μW under 0.38 MΩ load resistance when it is excited by the same vibration. PMID:26233403

Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film piezoelectric microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based vibrationenergyharvesters with two different designs are presented. These harvesters consist of a silicon cantilever, a silicon proof mass, and a ZnO piezoelectric layer. Design I has a large ZnO piezoelectric element and Design II has two smaller and equally sized ZnO piezoelectric elements; however, the total area of ZnO thin film in two designs is equal. The ZnO thin film is deposited by means of radio-frequency magnetron sputtering method and is characterized by means of XRD and SEM techniques. These ZnO energyharvesters are fabricated by using MEMS micromachining. The natural frequencies of the fabricated ZnO energyharvesters are simulated and tested. The test results show that these two energyharvesters with different designs have almost the same natural frequency. Then, the output performance of different ZnO energyharvesters is tested in detail. The effects of series connection and parallel connection of two ZnO elements on the load voltage and power are also analyzed. The experimental results show that the energyharvester with two ZnO piezoelectric elements in parallel connection in Design II has higher load voltage and higher load power than the fabricated energyharvesters with other designs. Its load voltage is 2.06 V under load resistance of 1 MΩ and its maximal load power is 1.25 μW under load resistance of 0.6 MΩ, when it is excited by an external vibration with frequency of 1300.1 Hz and acceleration of 10 m/s2. By contrast, the load voltage of the energyharvester of Design I is 1.77 V under 1 MΩ resistance and its maximal load power is 0.98 μW under 0.38 MΩ load resistance when it is excited by the same vibration.

In this paper, we present an experimental investigation on the energyharvesting performance of dynamically tailored structures based on the concept of embedded acoustic black holes (ABHs). Embedded ABHs allow tailoring the wave propagation characteristics of the host structure creating structural areas with extreme levels of energy density. Experiments are conducted on a tapered plate-like aluminum structure with multiple embedded ABH features. The dynamic response of the structure is tested via laser vibrometry in order to confirm the vibration localization and the passive wavelength sweep characteristic of ABH embedded tapers. Vibrationalenergy is extracted from the host structure and converted into electrical energy by using ceramic piezoelectric discs bonded on the ABHs and shunted on an external electric circuit. The energyharvesting performance is investigated both under steady state and transient excitation. The experimental results confirm that the dynamic tailoring produces a drastic increase in the harvestedenergy independently from the nature of the excitation input.

The simulation results for electromagnetic energyharvesters (EMEHs) under broad band stationary Gaussian random excitations indicate the importance of both a high transformation factor and a high mechanical quality factor to achieve favourable mean power, mean square load voltage, and output spectral density. The optimum load is different for random vibrations and for sinusoidal vibration. Reducing the total damping ratio under band-limited random excitation yields a higher mean square load voltage. Reduced bandwidth resulting from decreased mechanical damping can be compensated by increasing the electrical damping (transformation factor) leading to a higher mean square load voltage and power. Nonlinear EMEHs with a Duffing spring and with linear plus cubic damping are modeled using the method of statistical linearization. These nonlinear EMEHs exhibit approximately linear behaviour under low levels of broadband stationary Gaussian random vibration; however, at higher levels of such excitation the central (resonant) frequency of the spectral density of the output voltage shifts due to the increased nonlinear stiffness and the bandwidth broadens slightly. Nonlinear EMEHs exhibit lower maximum output voltage and central frequency of the spectral density with nonlinear damping compared to linear damping. Stronger nonlinear damping yields broader bandwidths at stable resonant frequency. PMID:24605063

In this work, we discuss a novel mechanical resonator design for the realization of vibrationEnergyHarvester (EH) capable to deliver power levels in the mW range. The device overcomes the typical constraint of frequency narrowband operability of standard cantilevered EHs, by exploiting a circular-shaped resonator with an increased number of mechanical Degrees Of Freedom (DOFs), leading to several resonant modes in the range of vibrations of interest (i.e. multi-modal wideband EH). The device, named Four-Leaf Clover (FLC), is simulated in Ansys Worbench™, showing a significant number of resonant modes up to vibrations of around 2 kHz (modal eigenfrequencies analysis), and exhibiting levels of converted power up to a few mW at resonance (harmonic coupled-field analysis). The sole FLC mechanical structure is realized by micro-milling an Aluminum foil, while a cantilevered test structure also including PolyVinyliDene Fluoride (PVDF) film sheet is assembled in order to collect first experimental feedback on generated power levels. The first lab based tests show peak-to-peak voltages of several Volts when the cantilever is stimulated with a mechanical pulse. Further developments of this work will comprise the assembly of an FLC demonstrator with PVDF pads, and its experimental testing in order to validate the simulated results.

This paper reports the development and implementation of an energy aware autonomous wireless condition monitoring sensor system (ACMS) powered by ambient vibrations. An electromagnetic (EM) generator has been designed to harvest sufficient energy to power a radio-frequency (RF) linked accelerometer-based sensor system. The ACMS is energy aware and will adjust the measurement/transmit duty cycle according to the available energy; this is typically every 3 s at 0.6 m s-2rms acceleration and can be as low as 0.2 m s-2rms with a duty cycle around 12 min. The EM generator has a volume of only 150 mm3 producing an average power of 58 µW at 0.6 m s-2rms acceleration at a frequency of 52 Hz. In addition, a voltage multiplier circuit is shown to increase the electrical damping compared to a purely resistive load; this allows for an average power of 120 µW to be generated at 1.7 m s-2rms acceleration. The ACMS has been successfully demonstrated on an industrial air compressor and an office air conditioning unit, continuously monitoring vibration levels and thereby simulating a typical condition monitoring application.

In this paper, a vibration-based MEMS electromagnetic energyharvester (EM-EH) device with two-degree-of-freedom (2DOF) configuration has been presented, modeled and characterized. The proposed 2DOF system comprises a primary subsystem for power generation, and an accessory subsystem for frequency tuning. A lumped parametric 2DOF model is built and examined in respect of energyharvesting capabilities. By controlling the mass ratio and frequency ratio, the first two resonances of primary mass can be tuned close to each other while maintaining comparable magnitudes. The 2DOF configuration is expected to be more adaptive and efficient than the conventional 1DOF structure, which could only operate near its sole resonance. The 2DOF EM-EH chip is fabricated on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer through double-sided deep reactive-ion etching (DRIE). Induction coil is only patterned on the primary mass for energy conversion. With current prototype at an acceleration of 0.12 g, two resonances of 326 and 391 Hz with output voltages of 3.6 and 6.5 mV are obtained respectively, providing good validation for the modeling results. This paper offers new insights of implementing a multimodal MEMS EM-EH device.

A piezoelectric nanogenerator has been fabricated using a simple, fast and scalable template-assisted electrodeposition process, by which vertically aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires were directly grown within a nanoporous polycarbonate (PC) template. The nanowires, having average diameter 184 nm and length 12 μm, are polycrystalline and have a preferred orientation of the [100] axis parallel to the long axis. The output power density of a nanogenerator fabricated from the as-grown ZnO nanowires still embedded within the PC template was found to be 151 ± 25 mW m‑3 at an impedance-matched load, when subjected to a low-level periodic (5 Hz) impacting force akin to gentle finger tapping. An energy conversion efficiency of ∼4.2% was evaluated for the electrodeposited ZnO nanowires, and the ZnO–PC composite nanogenerator was found to maintain good energyharvesting performance through 24 h of continuous fatigue testing. This is particularly significant given that ZnO-based nanostructures typically suffer from mechanical and/or environmental degradation that otherwise limits their applicability in vibrationalenergyharvesting. Our template-assisted synthesis of ZnO nanowires embedded within a protective polymer matrix through a single growth process is thus attractive for the fabrication of low-cost, robust and stable nanogenerators.

A piezoelectric nanogenerator has been fabricated using a simple, fast and scalable template-assisted electrodeposition process, by which vertically aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires were directly grown within a nanoporous polycarbonate (PC) template. The nanowires, having average diameter 184 nm and length 12 μm, are polycrystalline and have a preferred orientation of the [100] axis parallel to the long axis. The output power density of a nanogenerator fabricated from the as-grown ZnO nanowires still embedded within the PC template was found to be 151 ± 25 mW m(-3) at an impedance-matched load, when subjected to a low-level periodic (5 Hz) impacting force akin to gentle finger tapping. An energy conversion efficiency of ∼4.2% was evaluated for the electrodeposited ZnO nanowires, and the ZnO-PC composite nanogenerator was found to maintain good energyharvesting performance through 24 h of continuous fatigue testing. This is particularly significant given that ZnO-based nanostructures typically suffer from mechanical and/or environmental degradation that otherwise limits their applicability in vibrationalenergyharvesting. Our template-assisted synthesis of ZnO nanowires embedded within a protective polymer matrix through a single growth process is thus attractive for the fabrication of low-cost, robust and stable nanogenerators. PMID:27256619

With the development of wireless sensors and other devices, the need for continuous power supply with high reliability is growing ever more. The traditional battery power supply has the disadvantage of limited duration of continuous power supply capability so that replacement for new batteries has to be done regularly. This can be quite inconvenient and sometimes quite difficult especially when the sensors are located in places not easily accessible such as the inside of a machine or wild field. This situation stimulates the development of renewable power supply which can harvestenergy from the environment. The use of piezoelectric materials to converting environment vibration to electrical energy is one of the alternatives of which a broad range of research has been done by many researchers, focusing on different issues. The improvement of efficiency is one of the most important issues in vibration based energyharvesting. For this purpose different methods are devised and more accurate modeling of coupled piezoelectric mechanical systems is investigated. In the current paper, the research is focused on improving voltage generation of a piezoelectric bimorph on a vibration beam, as well as the analytical modeling of the same system. Also an initial study is conducted on the characteristics of the vibration of Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowire, which is a promising material for its coupled semiconducting and piezoelectric properties. The effect on the voltage generation by different placement of the piezoelectric bimorph on the vibrating beam is investigated. The relation between the voltage output and the curvature is derived which is used to explain the effect of placement on voltage generation. The effect of adding a lumped mass on the modal frequencies of the beam and on the curvature distribution is investigated. The increased voltage output from the piezoelectric bimorph by using appropriately selected mass is proved analytically and also verified by experiment. For

Vibrationalenergyharvesters scavenge ambient vibrationalenergy, offering an alternative to batteries for the autonomous operation of low power electronics. Velocity amplified electromagnetic generators (VAEGs) utilize the velocity amplification effect to increase power output and operational bandwidth, compared to linear resonators. A detailed experimental analysis of the influence of mass ratio and number of degrees-of-freedom (dofs) on the dynamic behaviour and power output of a macro-scale VAEG is presented. Various mass configurations are tested under drop-test and sinusoidal forced excitation, and the system performances are compared. For the drop-test, increasing mass ratio and number of dofs increases velocity amplification. Under forced excitation, the impacts between the masses are more complex, inducing greater energy losses. This results in the 2-dof systems achieving the highest velocities and, hence, highest output voltages. With fixed transducer size, higher mass ratios achieve higher voltage output due to the superior velocity amplification. Changing the magnet size to a fixed percentage of the final mass showed the increase in velocity of the systems with higher mass ratios is not significant enough to overcome the reduction in transducer size. Consequently, the 3:1 mass ratio systems achieved the highest output voltage. These findings are significant for the design of future reduced-scale VAEGs.

We investigate the output performance of a cubic harvester which can scavenge low-frequency vibrationenergy from all directions. By adjusting the size and shape of the inside magnets, higher induced voltages and output power can be achieved. The optimal magnet is found to be cubic shape with the length of 6.35 mm (25.6% volume ratio), which can generate 4.27 mV root mean square voltage and 2.45 μW average power at the frequency of 28.86 Hz and acceleration of 1.17 g. The device is also demonstrated as a self-powered tilt sensor by measuring induced voltages at different tilt angles.

We developed MEMS bi-stable spring for vibrationenergyharvester (VEH), which consists of intrinsically curved shape spring and gravitational acceleration. By applying the gravitational acceleration, the curved beam is offset to the gravity direction. It will make more symmetrical bi-stable motion and the symmetry is improved from 3.3 to 65.4%. We proposed that the combination between curved beam and gravity acceleration for decreasing snap- through acceleration. From the analytical result, we investigate the combination can effective to use for decreasing of snap-through force. We also fabricated the prototype device by using MEMS fabrication process. The frequency response for horizontal direction and the acceleration response for vertical direction are measured. The acceleration response shows that the gravitational acceleration improves the symmetry of snap-through force.

This paper reports a wideband vibrationalenergyharvesting scheme using a MEMS based nonlinear electromagnetic transducer. The nonlinearity is incorporated in the proposed device through the stretching strain in addition to the bending of the fixed-guided configured beams of the designed structure. The thin spring structure is fabricated on Silicon-On-Insulator substrate with device layer thickness of 50 m. The MEMS spring structure is packaged and characterized with wire wound copper coil (NE1) and micro fabricated double layer copper coil (NE2) for comparison. Measurement results show that ∼80 Hz half power bandwidth is obtained for the fabricated devices with maximum load powers of 2.8 W (NE1) and 0.4 W (NE2) respectively at 0.5g which improves the ‘power-bandwidth gain’ to one of the highest among reported works.

In the realm of MEMS piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvesters, cantilever-based designs are by far the most popular. Despite being deceptively simple, the active piezoelectric area near the clamped end is able to accumulate maximum strain-generated-electrical-charge, while the free end is able to accommodate a proof mass without compromising the effective area of the piezoelectric generator since it experiences minimal strain anyway. While other contending designs do exist, this paper investigates five micro-cantilever (MC) topologies, namely: a plain MC, a tapered MC, a lined MC, a holed MC and a coupled MC, in order to assess their relative performance as an energyharvester. Although a classical straight and plain MC offers the largest active piezoelectric area, alternative MC designs can potentially offer higher average mechanical strain distribution for a given mechanical loading. Numerical simulation and experimental comparison of these 5 MCs (0.5 μ AlN on 10 μm Si) with the same practical dimensions of 500 μm and 2000 μm, suggest a cantilever with a coupled subsidiary cantilever yield the best power performance, closely followed by the classical plain topology.

In this paper, a self-powered wireless sensor node utilising ambient vibrations for power is described. The device consists of a vibrationenergyharvester, power management system, microcontroller, accelerometer, RF transmitter/receiver and external LED indicators. The vibrationenergyharvester is adapted from a previously reported hybrid rotary-translational device and uses a pair of copper coil transducers to convert the mechanical energy of a magnetic sphere into usable electricity. The device requires less than 0.8 mW of power to operate continuously in its present setup (with LED indicators off) while measuring acceleration at a sample rate of 200 Hz, with the power source providing 39.7 mW of power from 500 mg excitations at 5.5 Hz. When usable input energy is removed, the device will continue to transmit data for more than 5 minutes.

Flexible bridge stay cables are often vulnerable to problematic vibrations under dynamic excitations. However, from an energy perspective, such excessive vibrations denote a green and sustainable energy source to some electronic devices (such as semi-active dampers or wireless sensors) installed on the same cables. This paper presents an experimental study on a novel dual-function system called electromagnetic damper cum energyharvester (EMDEH). The proposed EMDEH, consisting of an electromagnetic device connected to an energy-harvesting circuit (EHC), simultaneously harvests cable vibrationenergy and provides sufficient damping to the cables. A fixed-duty-cycle buck–boost converter is employed as the EHC, which emulates a resistive load and provides approximately optimal damping and optimal energyharvesting efficiency when operating in discontinuous conduction mode. A 5.85 m long scaled stay cable installed with a prototype EMDEH is tested in the laboratory under a series of harmonic and random excitations. The EMDEH can achieve a control performance comparable to passive viscous dampers. An average electrical power of 31.6 and 21.51 mW is harvested under harmonic and random vibrations, respectively, corresponding to the efficiency of 16.9% and 13.8%, respectively. Moreover, this experimental study proves that optimal damping and energyharvesting can be achieved simultaneously, which answers a pending question regarding such a dual-objective optimization problem. Self-powered semi-active control systems or wireless sensor networks may be developed for bridge stay cables in the future based on the proposed concept in this study.

In this paper a bistable composite cantilever beam comprising asymmetric laminates is studied for vibrationenergyharvesting applications. An additional magnetic bistability is introduced to the harvesting system to lower the level of excitation that triggers the snap-through for the cantilever from one stable state to another, while retaining the favorable broadband performance. In order to achieve the, the cantilever beam is fitted with a permanent magnet at its tip that is oriented so that there is magnetic repulsion with a stationary magnet. The system performance can be adjusted by varying the separation between the magnets. Experimental results reveal that the use of magnetic bistability enhances broadband performance and improves the output power within a certain level of drive level and magnet separation. The load-deflection characteristic of the bistable beam is experimentally determined, and is subsequently used to model the system by a reduced single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system having the form of the Duffing equation for a double-well potential system. The dynamics of the beam are investigated using bifurcation diagrams and shows that the qualitative behavior given by the experimentally measured response is predicted well by the simple SDOF model.

This work reports the development of a MEMS bistable electromagnetic vibrationalenergyharvester (EMVEH) consisting of a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) spiral spring, double layer micro-coils and miniaturized NdFeB magnets. Furthermore, with respect to the spiral silicon spring based VEH, four different square micro-coil topologies with different copper track width and number of turns have been investigated to determine the optimal coil dimensions. The micro-generator with the optimal micro-coil generated 0.68 micro-watt load power over an optimum resistive load at 0.1g acceleration, leading to normalized power density of 3.5 kg.s/m3. At higher accelerations the load power increased, and the vibrating magnet collides with the planar micro-coil producing wider bandwidth. Simulation results show that a substantially wider bandwidth could be achieved in the same device by introducing bistable nonlinearity through a repulsive configuration between the moving and fixed permanent magnets.

This paper reports for the first time experiments using an electrostatic vibrationenergyharvester comprised of a low voltage electret-charged MEMS transducer joined to an unstable autosynchronous conditioning circuit with rectangular charge-voltage characteristic, also known as the Bennet's doubler conditioning circuit. The experimental results show that the electret voltage, even if of low value, can be used as the necessary pre-charge for these type of electrostatic vibrationenergyharvesters. Also, the use of such a conditioning circuit with a low-voltage electret capacitive MEMS tranducer instead of the previously-reported conditioning circuits with direct connection to load or through a rectifier, can be advantageous in terms of maximal harvested power for a low-voltage electret, showing up to 95% higher converted power.

Innovation in integrated circuit technology along with improved manufacturing processes has resulted in considerable reduction in power consumption of electromechanical devices. Majority of these devices are currently powered by batteries. However, the issues posed by batteries, including the need for frequent battery recharge/replacement has resulted in a compelling need for alternate energy to achieve self-sufficient device operation or to supplement battery power. Vibration based energyharvesting methods through piezoelectric transduction provides with a promising potential towards replacing or supplementing battery power source. However, current piezoelectric energyharvesters generate low specific power (power-to-weight ratio) when compared to batteries that the harvesters seek to replace or supplement. In this study, the potential of integrating lightweight cellular honeycomb structures with existing piezoelectric device configurations (bimorph) to achieve higher specific power is investigated. It is shown in this study that at low excitation frequency ranges, replacing the solid continuous substrate of a conventional piezoelectric bimorph with honeycomb structures of the same material results in a significant increase in power-to-weight ratio of the piezoelectric harvester. In order to maximize the electrical response of vibration based power harvesters, the natural frequency of these harvesters is designed to match the input driving frequency. The commonly used technique of adding a tip mass is employed to lower the natural frequency (to match driving frequency) of both, solid and honeycomb substrate bimorphs. At higher excitation frequency, the natural frequency of the traditional solid substrate bimorph can only be altered (to match driving frequency) through a change in global geometric design parameters, typically achieved by increasing the thickness of the harvester. As a result, the size of the harvester is increased and can be disadvantageous

An unstable mechanical structure that can self-balance when perturbed is a superior choice for vibrationenergyharvesting and vibration detection. In this work, a suspended 3D spiral structure is integrated with a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) for energyharvesting and sensor applications. The newly designed vertical contact-separation mode TENG has a wide working bandwidth of 30 Hz in low-frequency range with a maximum output power density of 2.76 W/m(2) on a load of 6 MΩ. The position of an in-plane vibration source was identified by placing TENGs at multiple positions as multichannel, self-powered active sensors, and the location of the vibration source was determined with an error less than 6%. The magnitude of the vibration is also measured by the output voltage and current signal of the TENG. By integrating the TENG inside a buoy ball, wave energyharvesting at water surface has been demonstrated and used for lighting illumination light, which shows great potential applications in marine science and environmental/infrastructure monitoring. PMID:24168315

Impulsive energies are abundant throughout the natural and built environments, for instance as stimulated by wind gusts, foot-steps, or vehicle-road interactions. In the interest of maximizing the sustainability of society's technological developments, one idea is to capture these high-amplitude and abrupt energies and convert them into usable electrical power such as for sensors which otherwise rely on less sustainable power supplies. In this spirit, the considerable sensitivity to impulse-type events previously uncovered for bistable oscillators has motivated recent experimental and numerical studies on the power generation performance of bistable vibrationenergyharvesters. To lead to an effective and efficient predictive tool and design guide, this research develops a new analytical approach to estimate the electroelastic response and power generation of a bistable energyharvester when excited by an impulse. Comparison with values determined by direct simulation of the governing equations shows that the analytically predicted net converted energies are very accurate for a wide range of impulse strengths. Extensive experimental investigations are undertaken to validate the analytical approach and it is seen that the predicted estimates of the impulsive energy conversion are in excellent agreement with the measurements, and the detailed structural dynamics are correctly reproduced. As a result, the analytical approach represents a significant leap forward in the understanding of how to effectively leverage bistable structures as energyharvesting devices and introduces new means to elucidate the transient and far-from-equilibrium dynamics of nonlinear systems more generally.

A novel electromagnetic pendulum energyharvester with mechanical motion rectifier (MMR) is proposed and investigated in this paper. MMR is a mechanism which rectifies the bidirectional swing motion of the pendulum into unidirectional rotation of the generator by using two one-way clutches in the gear system. In this paper, two prototypes of pendulum energyharvester with MMR and without MMR are designed and fabricated. The dynamic model of the proposed MMR pendulum energyharvester is established by considering the engagement and disengagement of the one way clutches. The simulation results show that the proposed MMR pendulum energyharvester has a larger output power at high frequencies comparing with non-MMR pendulum energyharvester which benefits from the disengagement of one-way clutch during pendulum vibration. Moreover, the proposed MMR pendulum energyharvester is broadband compare with non-MMR pendulum energyharvester, especially when the equivalent inertia is large. An experiment is also conducted to compare the energyharvesting performance of these two prototypes. A flywheel is attached at the end of the generator to make the disengagement more significant. The experiment results also verify that MMR pendulum energyharvester is broadband and has a larger output power at high frequency over the non-MMR pendulum energyharvester.

The basic purpose of a damper is to reduce the vibration and to have a better ride comfort, road handling and safety to the rider. Recent developments show that an active vibration damper can effectively work much better than a passive damper. The effectiveness and reliability can be further enhanced by using hybrid dampers, which is a combination of active and passive dampers. But the need to have energy optimization in any field need not be stressed. Consequently, novel suspension concepts are required, not only to improve the vehicle's dynamic performance, but also to see that the energy generated during vibration can be harvested by utilizing regeneration functions. Hence if a hybrid damper with energyharvesting capability be designed, it would serve both purposes. In the hybrid damper a combination of hydraulic damper to act as a passive damper and an electromagnetic (EM) damper to act as an active damper is considered. The hydraulic system has more reliability and is time tested and the EM system acts as a dynamic vibration system as well as energyharvester. In this study a hybrid EM damper is modeled, analyzed and validity is shown for frequency response functions and energy balance for its active use. It is also shown how the effectiveness of the suspension system can be enhanced by using a hybrid damper.

In the present work we examine how mechanical nonlinearity can be appropriately utilized to achieve strong robustness of performance in an energyharvesting setting. More specifically, for energyharvesting applications, a great challenge is the uncertain character of the excitation. The combination of this uncertainty with the narrow range of good performance for linear oscillators creates the need for more robust designs that adapt to a wider range of excitation signals. A typical application of this kind is energyharvesting from walking vibrations. Depending on the particular characteristics of the person that walks as well as on the pace of walking, the excitation signal obtains completely different forms. In the present work we study a nonlinear spring mechanism that is composed of a cantilever wrapping around a curved surface as it deflects. While for the free cantilever, the force acting on the free tip depends linearly on the tip displacement, the utilization of a contact surface with the appropriate distribution of curvature leads to essentially nonlinear dependence between the tip displacement and the acting force. The studied nonlinear mechanism has favorable mechanical properties such as low frictional losses, minimal moving parts, and a rugged design that can withstand excessive loads. Through numerical simulations we illustrate that by utilizing this essentially nonlinear element in a 2 degrees-of-freedom (DOF) system, we obtain strongly nonlinear energy transfers between the modes of the system. We illustrate that this nonlinear behavior is associated with strong robustness over three radically different excitation signals that correspond to different walking paces. To validate the strong robustness properties of the 2DOF nonlinear system, we perform a direct parameter optimization for 1DOF and 2DOF linear systems as well as for a class of 1DOF and 2DOF systems with nonlinear springs similar to that of the cubic spring that are physically realized

The piezoelectric transduction mechanism is a common vibration-to-electric energyharvesting approach. Piezoelectric energyharvesters are typically mounted on a vibrating host structure, whereby alternating voltage output is generated by a dynamic strain field. A design target in this case is to match the natural frequency of the harvester to the ambient excitation frequency for the device to operate in resonance mode, thus significantly increasing vibration amplitudes and, as a result, energy output. Other fundamental vibration modes have strain nodes, where the dynamic strain field changes sign in the direction of the cantilever length. The paper reports on a dimensionless numerical transient analysis of a cantilever of a constant cross-section and an optimally-shaped cantilever with the objective to accurately predict the position of a strain node. Total effective strain produced by both cantilevers segmented at the strain node is calculated via transient analysis and compared to the strain output produced by the cantilevers segmented at strain nodes obtained from modal analysis, demonstrating a 7% increase in energy output. Theoretical results were experimentally verified by using open-circuit voltage values measured for the cantilevers segmented at optimal and suboptimal segmentation lines. PMID:26703623

Sandwiched fluoroethylene propylene films with charged, parallel-tunnel voids between the layers, which exhibit high d31 piezoelectric activity, were designed. Stripes of such piezoelectrets were exposed to mechanical stress in length direction by a seismic mass excited to vibrations. Due to the piezoelectricity of the films, a current in a terminating resistor is generated. The harvested power across the resistor amounts to about 0.2 mW for a seismic mass of 2 g and an acceleration of 1 g. In comparison with other piezoelectret or with poly(vinylidene fluoride) harvesters, the generated power referred to equal acceleration and force, is significantly larger.

A model for energyharvesting from a rotating automotive tyre is suggested in which the principle of stochastic resonance is advantageously exploited. A bistable response characteristic is obtained by recourse a small harvester comprising a magnetically repellant configuration in which an instrumented cantilever beam can flip between two physical response states when suitably excited by the rotation of a car wheel into which it is fitted. The rotation of the wheel creates a periodic modulation which enables stochastic resonance to take place and as a consequence of this for energy to be harvested from road noise transmitted through the tyre. An optimised mathematical model of the system is presented based on a series of experimental tests and it is shown that a ten-fold increase in harvestedenergy over a comparable monostable case is feasible. The suggested application for this harvester is to provide electrical power for a tyre pressure monitoring system.

Recently bistable composite laminates have been investigated for broadband energyharvesting, by taking advantage of their nonlinear oscillations around the first vibration mode. However, it has been reported that the excitation acceleration needed for the desired large amplitude limit cycle oscillation is too high, if the first vibration mode is elevated to relative higher frequencies (60 Hz e.g.). This study investigates the feasibility of exploiting the nonlinear oscillations around the second vibration mode of a rectangular piezoelectric bistable laminate (RPBL), for broadband vibrationenergyharvesting at relative higher frequencies, but with relative low excitation acceleration. The proposed RPBL has three oscillation patterns around the second vibration mode, including single-well oscillation, chaotic intermittency oscillation and limit cycle oscillation. The broadband characteristics and the considerable energy conversion efficiency of the RPBL are demonstrated in experiments. The static nonlinearity and the dynamic responses of the RPBL are investigated by finite element method. Finite element analysis (FEA) reveals that the enhanced dynamic responses of the RPBL are due to its softening bending stiffness and the local snap through phenomenon. The FEA results coincide reasonably well with experimental results.

In this paper, we report on the long-term reliability of potassium ion electret included in a thermally grown silicon oxide. The electret in this work is used in a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) energyharvester to generate electrical current from mechanical vibration. A spring-mass system similar to a comb-drive electrostatic actuator is developed by silicon micromachining, and the surface is oxidized by wet-oxidation through a potassium hydroxide bubbler, thereby including potassium atoms at a high concentration. The potassium is then electrically polarized by an applied voltage of 150 V at 650 °C for 5 min. Degradation of the stored polarization potential is monitored in a vacuum of 1 × 10-3 Pa at elevated temperatures of 350, 400, and 450 °C. The time needed to cause a -1 dB decay of the potential is used as the lifetime of the electret, and the Arrhenius extrapolation plot suggested a life time of more than 400 years at 25 °C.

Piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvesters (VEHs) with two-layer structures are developed. The attached masses are used to tune the frequencies and as spacers between the two layers. By changing the dimensions of the layers and masses and relocating the positions of the masses, the VEHs can generate close resonance frequencies and considerable power output. The modal approach is introduced to determine the modal performance using the mass ratio and the modal electromechanical coupling coefficient, where the mass ratio represents the influence of the modal mechanical behaviour on the power density directly, and the modal parameters required are derived using the finite element method. The findings indicate that a mode with too large mass ratio will cause the remaining modes to have small mass ratios and poor performance. Then, a screening process for the identification of the configurations of VEHs with optimal or near-optimal performance is developed using the modal approach. This procedure facilitates the selection of VEH configurations with close resonances and favourable values of mass ratio initially before carrying out full analysis. Furthermore, the approach can be used to develop VEHs of different sizes ranging from a few millimeters to hundreds of millimeters with the power ranging from microwatts to milliwatts.

A piezoelectric transducer for harvestingenergy from ambient mechanical vibrations/strains under pressure condition was developed. The proposed transducer was made of two ring-type piezoelectric stacks, one pair of bow-shaped elastic plates, and one shaft that pre-compresses them. This transducer works in flex-compressive (F-C) mode, which is different from a conventional flex-tensional (F-T) one, to transfer a transversely applied force F into an amplified longitudinal force N pressing against the two piezo-stacks via the two bowshaped elastic plates, generating a large electric voltage output via piezoelectric effect. Our experimental results show that without an electric load, an F-C mode piezo-transducer could generate a maximum electric voltage output of up to 110 Vpp, and with an electric load of 40 κΩ, it a maximum power output of 14.6 mW under an acceleration excitation of 1 g peak-peak at the resonance frequency of 87 Hz. PMID:21507747

An electro-mechanical system of vibrationalenergyharvesting is studied. The beam is excited by external and kinematic periodic forces and damped by an electrical resistor through the coupled piezoelectric transducer. Nonlinearities are introduced by stoppers limiting the transverse displacements of the beam. The interaction between the beam and the stoppers is modeled as Winkler elastic foundation. The mechanical properties of the piezoelectric layer are taken into account and the beam is modeled as a composite structure. For the examined composite beam, the geometrically nonlinear version of the Timoshenko's beam theory is assumed. The equations of motion are derived by the principle of virtual work considering large deflections. An isogeometric approach is applied for space discretization and B-Splines are used as shape functions. Finally, the power output and the efficiency of the system due to harmonic excitations are discussed. The influence of the position of the stoppers and their length on the dynamics of the beam and consequently on the power output are analyzed and presented.

Modeling and comparative analysis of galloping-based hybrid piezoelectric-inductive energyharvesting systems are investigated. Both piezoelectric and electromagnetic transducers are attached to the transverse degree of freedom of the prismatic structure in order to harvestenergy from two possible sources. A fully-coupled electroaeroelastic model is developed which takes into account the coupling between the generated voltage from the piezoelectric transducer, the induced current from the electromagnetic transducer, and the transverse displacement of the bluff body. A nonlinear quasi-steady approximation is employed to model the galloping force. To determine the influences of the external load resistances that are connected to the piezoelectric and electromagnetic circuits on the onset speed of galloping, a deep linear analysis is performed. It is found that the external load resistances in these two circuits have significant effects on the onset speed of galloping of the harvester with the presence of optimum values. To investigate the effects of these transduction mechanisms on the performance of the galloping energyharvester, a nonlinear analysis is performed. Using the normal form of the Hopf bifurcation, it is demonstrated that the hybrid energyharvester has a supercritical instability for different values of the external load resistances. For well-defined wind speed and external load resistance in the electromagnetic circuit, the results showed that there is a range of external load resistances in the piezoelectric circuit at which the output power generated by the electromagnetic induction is very small. On the other hand, there are two optimal load resistances at which the output power by the piezoelectric transducer is maximum. Based on a comparative study, it is demonstrated the hybrid piezoelectric-inductive energyharvester is very beneficial in terms of having two sources of energy. However, compared to the classical piezoelectric and

The reduction of power consumption of sensors allows the local power supply or wireless sensor networks. This paper introduces the results of design and experiments on devices for harvestingenergy from vibrations of machines. The main contribution of this research is the empirical evaluation of different technical solutions able to improve harvester performances and sensing system duty cycle. Satisfactory results have been achieved in lowering of resonance by levitating suspensions and in increasing of Q-factor by studying the air flows. Output power values of 10mW (5.7Hz, 1.4g) and 115mW (3.2Hz, 0.2g) were obtained for piezoelectric and inductive harvesters respectively.

The authors investigate a vibration-based energyharvesting system utilizing essential (nonlinearizable) nonlinearities and electromagnetic coupling elements. The system consists of a grounded, weakly damped linear oscillator (primary system) subjected to a single impulsive load. This primary system is coupled to a lightweight, damped oscillating attachment (denoted as nonlinear energy sink, NES) via a neodymium magnet and an inductance coil, and a piano wire, which generates an essential geometric cubic stiffness nonlinearity. Under impulsive input, the transient damped dynamics of this system exhibit transient resonance captures (TRCs) causing intentional large-amplitude and high-frequency instabilities in the response of the NES. These TRCs result in strong energy transfer from the directly excited primary system to the light-weight attachment. The energy is harvested by the electromagnetic elements in the coupling and, in the present case, dissipated in a resistive element in the electrical circuit. The primary goal of this work is to numerically, analytically, and experimentally demonstrate the efficacy of employing this type of intentional high-frequency dynamic instability to achieve enhanced vibrationenergyharvesting under impulsive excitation.

Research in broadband nonlinear piezoelectric energyharvesting has gained traction in recent years as resonant, linear harvesters do not operate optimally in dynamic environments. By placing a linear harvester in a symmetric magnetic field, a nonlinear restoring force allows the system to realize motion across two potential wells. Different levels of excitation enable the system to oscillate solely in one potential well, periodically across both potential wells, or aperiodically across both potential wells. Periodic interwell motion is considered desirable for nonlinear energyharvesting systems, however, coexistent attractors inhibit uniqueness of such a solution. The authors have previously shown that chaotic, aperiodic motion between potential wells can be optimized for improved energyharvesting. The technique applied a chaotic controller to stabilize a large amplitude periodic orbit within the chaotic attractor. This work considers the basins of attraction of the two concurrent attractors and applies an intermittent control law in which the system is perturbed from a chaotic, aperiodic interwell response into the desirable large amplitude, periodic, interwell response.

An electromechanical linear oscillator with a random ambient excitation and telegraphic noise parametric excitation is considered as an energyharvester model. It is shown that a parametric colored excitation can have a dramatic effect on the enhancement of the energyharvesting. A close relation with mean-square stability of the oscillator is established. Four sources of the ambient excitation are considered: the white noise, the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck noise, the harmonic noise and the periodic function. Analytical expressions for stationary electrical net mean power are presented for all the considered cases, confirming the proposed approach.

Because of its promise for the generation of wireless systems, energyharvesting technology using smart materials is the focus of significant reported effort. Various techniques and methodologies for increasing power extraction have been tested. One of the key issues with the existing techniques is the use of diodes in the harvesting circuits with a typical voltage drop of 0.7 V. Since most of the smart materials, and other transducers, do not produce large voltage outputs, this voltage drop becomes significant in most applications. Hence, there is a need for designing a rectification method that can convert AC to DC with minimal losses. This paper describes a new mechanical rectification scheme, designed using reed switches, in a full-bridge configuration that shows the capability of working with signals from millivolts to a few hundred volts with extremely low losses. The methodology has been tested for piezoelectric energyharvesters undergoing mechanical excitation.

In this study, we derived an equation of motion for an electromechanical system in view of the components and working mechanism of an electromagnetic-type energyharvester (ETEH). An electromechanical transduction factor (ETF) was calculated using a finite-element analysis (FEA) based on Maxwell's theory. The experimental ETF of the ETEH measured by means of sine wave excitation was compared with and FEA data. Design parameters for the stationary part of the energyharvester were optimized in terms of the power performance by using a response surface method (RSM). With optimized design parameters, the ETEH showed an improvement in performance. We experimented with the optimized ETEH (OETEH) with respect to changes in the external excitation frequency and the load resistance by taking human body vibration in to account. The OETEH achieved a performance improvement of about 30% compared to the initial model.

We have presented a frequency up-converted hybrid type (Piezoelectric and Electromagnetic) vibrationenergyharvester that can be used in powering portable and wearable smart devices by handy motion. A transverse impact mechanism has been employed for frequency up-conversion. Use of two transduction mechanisms increases the output power as well as power density. The proposed device consists of a non-magnetic spherical ball (freely movable at handy motion frequency) to impact periodically on the parabolic top of a piezoelectric (PZT) cantilevered mass by sliding over it, allowing it to vibrate at its higher resonant frequency and generates voltage by virtue of piezoelectric effect. A magnet attached to the cantilever vibrates along with it at the same frequency and a relative motion between the magnet and a coil placed below it, induces emf voltage across the coil terminals as well. A macro-scale prototype of the harvester has been fabricated and tested by handy motion. With an optimum magnet-coil overlap, a maximum 0.98mW and 0.64mW peak powers have been obtained from the piezoelectric and the electromagnetic transducers of the proposed device while shaken, respectively. It offers 84.4μWcm-3 peak power density.

For a nonlinear beam-mass system used to harvest vibratory energy, the two-mode approximation of the response is computed and compared to the single-mode approximation of the response. To this end, the discretized equations of generalized coordinates are developed and studied using a computational method. By obtaining phase-portraits and time-histories of the displacement and voltage, it is shown that the strong nonlinearity of the system affects the system dynamics considerably. By comparing the results of single- and two-mode approximations, it is shown that the number of mode shapes affects the dynamics of the response. Varying the tip-mass results in different structural configurations namely linear, pre-buckled nonlinear, and post-buckled nonlinear configurations. The nonlinear dynamics of the system response are investigated for vibrations about static equilibrium points arising from the buckling of the beam. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the harvested power is affected by the system configuration.

This paper focuses on the primary development of novel numerical and analytical techniques of the modal damped vibrationenergyharvesters with arbitrary proof mass offset. The key equations of electromechanical finite element discretisation using the extended Lagrangian principle are revealed and simplified to give matrix and scalar forms of the coupled system equations, indicating the most relevant numerical technique for the power harvester research. To evaluate the performance of the numerical study, the analytical closed-form boundary value equations have been developed using the extended Hamiltonian principle. The results from the electromechanical frequency response functions (EFRFs) derived from two theoretical studies show excellent agreement with experimental studies. The benefit of the numerical technique is in providing effective and quick predictions for analysing parametric designs and physical properties of piezoelectric materials. Although analytical technique provides a challenging process for analysing the complex smart structure, it shows complementary study for validating the numerical technique.

This work is aimed at developing a way to harvestenergy from a fluid stream with the application of piezoelectric transducers in a small channel. In this COMSOL Multiphysics based simulation study, it is attempted to harvestenergy from the abundant renewable source of energy available in the form of kinetic energy of naturally occurring flow of fluids. The strategy involves harnessing energy from a fluid-actuator through generation of couples, eddies and vortices, resulting from the stagnation and separation of flow around a semi-circular bluff-body attached to a cantilever beam containing a piezoceramic layer. Fluctuation of fluidic pressure impulse on the beam due to vortex shedding and varying lift forces causes the flexible cantilever beam to oscillate in the direction normal to the fluid flow in a periodic manner. The periodic application and release of a mechanical strain upon the beam effected a generation of electric potential within the piezoelectric layer, thus enabling extraction of electrical energy from the kinetic energy of the fluid. The piezoelectric material properties and transducer design are kept unchanged throughout the study, whereas the configuration is tested with different fluids and varying flow characteristics. The size and geometry of the obstructing entity are systematically varied to closely inspect the output from different iterations and for finding the optimum design parameters. The intermittent changes in the generated forces and subsequent variation in the strain on the beam are also monitored to find definitive relationship with the electrical energy output.

This paper reports on the design and experimental validation of transducers for energyharvesting from largescale civil structures, for which the power levels can be above 100W, and disturbance frequencies below 1Hz. The transducer consists of a back-driven ballscrew, coupled to a permanent-magnet synchronous machine, and power harvesting is regulated via control of a four-quadrant power electronic drive. Design tradeoffs between the various subsystems (including the controller, electronics, machine, mechanical conversion, and structural system) are illustrated, and an approach to device optimization is presented. Additionally, it is shown that nonlinear dissipative behavior of the electromechanical system must be properly characterized in order to assess the viability of the technology, and also to correctly design the matched impedance to maximize harvested power. An analytical expression for the average power generated across a resistive load is presented, which takes the nonlinear dissipative behavior of the device into account. From this expression the optimal resistance is determined to maximize power for an example in which the transducer is coupled to base excited tuned mass damper (TMD). Finally, the results from the analytical model are compared to an experimental system that uses hybrid testing to simulated the dynamics of the TMD.

Vibro-Impcact harvesting devices are one concept to increase the bandwidth of resonant operated piezoelectric vibration generators. The fundamental setup is a piezoelectric bending element, where the deflection is limited by two stoppers. After starting the system in resonance operation the bandwidth increases towards higher frequencies as soon the deflection reach the stopper. If the stoppers are rigid, the frequency response gives constant amplitude for increasing frequencies, as long the system is treated as ideal one-DOF system with symmetric stoppers. In consequence, the bandwidth is theoretically unlimited large. However, such a system also has two major drawbacks, firstly the complicated startup mechanism and secondly the tendency to drop from the high constant branch in the frequency response on the much smaller linear branch if the system is disturbed. Nevertheless, the system has its application wherever the startup problem can be solved. Most modeling approaches utilize modal one-DOF models to describe the systems behavior and do not tread the higher harmonics of the beam. This work investigates the effects of the stoppers on the vibration shape of the piezoelectric beam, wherefore a finite element model is used. The used elements are one-dimensional two node elements based on the Timoshenko-beam theory. The finite element code is implemented in Matlab. The model is calculated utilizing time step integration for simulation, to reduce the computation time an auto-resonant calculation method is implemented. A control loop including positive feedback and saturation is used to create a self-excited system. Therefore, the system is always operated in resonance (on the backbone curve) and the frequency is a direct result of the computation. In this case tip velocity is used as feedback. This technique allows effective parametric studies. Investigated parameters include gap, excitation amplitude, tip mass as well as the stiffness of the stopper. The stress and

We present a non-resonant, frequency up-converted electromagnetic energyharvester that generates significant power from human-body-induced vibration, e.g., hand-shaking. Upon excitation, a freely movable non-magnetic ball within a cylinder periodically hits two magnets suspended on two helical compression springs located at either ends of the cylinder, allowing those to vibrate with higher frequencies. The device parameters have been designed based on the characteristics of human hand-shaking vibration. A prototype has been developed and tested both by vibration exciter (for non-resonance test) and by manual hand-shaking. The fabricated device generated 110 μW average power with 15.4 μW cm-3 average power density, while the energyharvester was mounted on a smart phone and was hand-shaken, indicating its ability in powering portable hand-held smart devices from low frequency (<5 Hz) vibrations.

Nonlinear piezoelectric energyharvesting generators can provide a large bandwidth combined with a good resonant power output. However, the frequency response is characterized by a strong hysteresis making a technical use difficult if the hysteresis cannot be compensated. We propose a tuning mechanism that allows both, a compensation of the hysteresis as well as maintaining the optimal work point. The compensation algorithm can reduce the hysteresis to a minimum of only 1.5 Hz and maintain a high energy oscillation in a large frequency window between 53.3 Hz and 74.5 Hz.

Monitoring the traffic and the structural health of traffic tunnels requires numerous sensors. Powering these remote and partially embedded sensors from ambient energies will reduce maintenance costs, and improve the sensor network performance. This work reports on vibration levels detected in railway and road tunnels as a potential energy source for embedded sensors. The measurement results showed that the vibrations at any location in the road tunnel and at the wall in the railway tunnel are too small for useful vibrationharvesting. In contrast, the railway sleeper features usable vibrations and sufficient mounting space. For this application site, a robust piezoelectric vibrationharvester was designed and equipped with a power interface circuit. Within the field test, it is demonstrated that sufficient energy is harvested to supply a microcontroller with a radio frequency (RF) interface.

This paper reports a comprehensive modeling and experimental characterization of a bridge shaped nonlinear energyharvester. A doubly clamped beam at large deflection requires stretching strain in addition to the bending strain to be geometrically compatible, which stiffens the beam as the beam deflects and transforms the dynamics to a nonlinear regime. The Duffing mode non-linear resonance widens the frequency bandwidth significantly at higher frequencies than the linear resonant frequency. The modeling includes a nonlinear measure of strain coupled with piezoelectric constitutive equations which end up in nonlinear coupling terms in the equations of motion. The main result supports that the power generation is bounded by the mechanical damping for both linear and nonlinear harvesters. Modeling also shows the power generation is over a wider bandwidth in the nonlinear case. A prototype is manufactured and tested to measure the power generation at different load resistances and acceleration amplitudes. The prototype shows a nonlinear behavior with well-matched experimental data to the modeling.

The present work has experimentally characterized energyharvesters consisting of a circular cylinder mounted at the tip of a flexible cantilever beam. VIV phenomena such as lock-in range, maximum amplitude of transverse oscillation and hysteresis effects have been studied by testing different physical parameters such as structural damping, mass ratio, and aspect ratio. Griffin plot generated by the experimental data of SDOF high aspect ratio circular cylinders have been used to validate VIV. As the harvester is a continuous system of low aspect ratio circular cylinders, three cases have been investigated: low aspect ratio effect of cylinders, effect of multiple modes or coupled transverse-torsional oscillation and non-linear effect due to large deformation of flexible cantilever beams. Griffin plot shows large variance in the case of aspect ratios less than 3. Coupled transverse-torsional oscillation affects VIV negatively. Results show that added structural damping due to piezoelectric patches attached to the cantilever beam decreases electrical power output as a non-linear function of mass ratio. Work supported by National Science Foundation under Grant No. CBET #1033117.

This paper presents an experimental verification of a self-excitation control of a resonance- type vibrationenergyharvester with a Duffing-type nonlinearity which is designed to perform effectively in a wide frequency range. For the conventional linear vibrationenergyharvester, the performance of the power generation at the resonance frequency and the bandwidth of the resonance peak are trade-off. The resonance frequency band can be expanded by introducing a Duffing-type nonlinear oscillator in order to enable the harvester to generate larger electric power in a wider frequency range. However, since such nonlinear oscillator can have multiple stable steady-state solutions in the resonance band, it is difficult for the nonlinear harvester to maintain the high performance of the power generation constantly. The principle of self-excitation and entrainment has been utilized to provide the global stability to the highest-energy solution by destabilizing other unexpected lower-energy solutions by introducing a switching circuit of the load resistance between positive and the negative values depending on the response amplitude of the oscillator. It has been experimentally validated that this control law imparts the self-excitation capability to the oscillator to show an entrainment into the highest-energy solution.

In this work, we discuss the verification and preliminary experimental characterization of a MEMS-based vibrationEnergyHarvester (EH) design. The device, named Four-Leaf Clover (FLC), is based on a circular-shaped mechanical resonator with four petal-like mass-spring cascaded systems. This solution introduces several mechanical Degrees of Freedom (DOFs), and therefore enables multiple resonant modes and deformation shapes in the vibrations frequency range of interest. The target is to realize a wideband multi-modal EH-MEMS device, that overcomes the typical narrowband working characteristics of standard cantilevered EHs, by ensuring flexible and adaptable power source to ultra-low power electronics for integrated remote sensing nodes (e.g. Wireless Sensor Networks - WSNs) in the Internet of Things (IoT) scenario, aiming to self-powered and energy autonomous smart systems. Finite Element Method simulations of the FLC EH-MEMS show the presence of several resonant modes for vibrations up to 4-5 kHz, and level of converted power up to a few μW at resonance and in closed-loop conditions (i.e. with resistive load). On the other hand, the first experimental tests of FLC fabricated samples, conducted with a Laser Doppler Vibrometer (LDV), proved the presence of several resonant modes, and allowed to validate the accuracy of the FEM modeling method. Such a good accordance holds validity for what concerns the coupled field behavior of the FLC EH-MEMS, as well. Both measurements and simulations performed at 190 Hz (i.e. out of resonance) showed the generation of power in the range of nW (Root Mean Square - RMS values). Further steps of this work will include the experimental characterization in a full range of vibrations, aiming to prove the whole functionality of the FLC EH-MEMS proposed design concept.

This paper reports for the first time a MEMS electrostatic vibrationenergyharvester (e-VEH) with corona-charged vertical electrets on its electrodes. The bandwidth of the 1-cm2 device is extended in low and high frequencies by nonlinear elastic stoppers. With a bias voltage of 46 V (electret@21 V + DC external source@25 V) between the electrodes, the RMS power of the device reaches 0.89 μW at 33 Hz and 6.6 μW at 428 Hz. The -3dB frequency band including the hysteresis is 223∼432 Hz, the one excluding the hysteresis 88∼166 Hz. We also demonstrate the charging of a 47 μF capacitor used for powering a wireless and autonomous temperature sensor node with a data transmission beyond 10 m at 868 MHz.

The powering of small-scale electronic mobile devices has been in recent years the subject of a great number of research efforts aimed primarily at finding an alternative solution to standard batteries. The harvesting of kinetic energy present in the form of random vibrations (from non-equilibrium thermal noise up to machine vibrations) is an interesting option due to the almost universal presence of some kind of motion. Present working solutions for vibrationenergyharvesting are based on oscillating mechanical elements that convert kinetic energy via capacitive, inductive or piezoelectric methods. These oscillators are usually designed to be resonantly tuned to the ambient dominant frequency. However, in most cases the ambient random vibrations have their energy distributed over a wide spectrum of frequencies, especially at low frequency, and frequency tuning is not always possible due to geometrical/dynamical constraints. We present a new approach to the powering of small autonomous sensors based on vibrationenergyharvesting by the exploitation of nonlinear stochastic dynamics. Such a method is shown to outperform standard linear approaches based on the use of resonant oscillators and to overcome some of the most severe limitations of present strategies, like narrow bandwidth, need for continuous frequency tuning and low power efficiency. We demonstrate the superior performances of this method by applying it to piezoelectric energyharvesting from ambient vibration.

High energy density piezoelectric composition corresponding to 0.9Pb(Zr0.56Ti0.44)O3–0.1Pb[(Zn0.8/3Ni0.2/3) Nb2/3]O3 + 2 mol% MnO2 (PZTZNN) and 0.8[Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48) O3]-0.2[Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3] (PZTPZN) were synthesized by conventional ceramic processing technique using three different sintering profiles. Plates of the sintered samples were used to fabricate the piezoelectric bimorphs with optimized dimensions to exhibit resonance in the loaded condition in the range of ~200 Hz. An analytical model for energyharvesting from bimorph transducer was developed which was confirmed by experimental measurements. The results of this study clearly show that power density of bimorph transducer can be enhanced by increasing the magnitude of product (d ∙ g), where d is the piezoelectric strain constant and g is the piezoelectric voltage constant. PMID:20941885

This paper describes a novel electromagnetic energyharvester that exploits the low flexural modulus of ABS and comprises of a nonlinear mechanism to enhance the generated power and bandwidth. The device is printed using desktop additive manufacturing techniques (3D printing) that use thermoplastics. It has a ‘V’ spring topology and exhibits a softening spring non-linearity introduced through the magnetic arrangement, which introduces a monostable potential well. A model is presented and measurements correspond favourably. The produced prototype generates a peak power of approximately 2.5mW at a frame acceleration of 1g and has a power bandwidth of approximately 1.2→1.5Hz and 3.5→3.9Hz during up and down sweeps respectively. The device has a power density of 0.4mW/cm3 at a frame acceleration of 1g and a density of 0.04mW/cm3 from a generated power of 25μW at 0.1g.

This paper contends to be the first to report the experimental observation of up to 28 orders of parametric resonance, which has thus far only been envisioned in the theoretical realm. While theory has long predicted the onset of n orders of parametric resonance, previously reported experimental observations have been limited up to about the first 5 orders. This is due to the rapid narrowing nature of the frequency bandwidth of the higher instability intervals, making practical accessibility increasingly more difficult. Here, the authors have experimentally confirmed up to 28 orders of parametric resonance in a micromachined membrane resonator when electrically undamped. While the implication of this finding spans across the vibration dynamics and transducer application spectrum, the particular significance of this work is to broaden the accumulative operational frequency bandwidth of vibrationenergyharvesting for enabling self-powered microsystems. Up to 5 orders were recorded when driven at 1.0 g of acceleration across a matched load of 70 kΩ. With a natural frequency of 980 Hz, the fundamental mode direct resonance had a −3 dB bandwidth of 55 Hz, in contrast to the 314 Hz for the first order parametric resonance; furthermore, the half power bands of all 5 orders accumulated to 478 Hz. PMID:27445205

This paper contends to be the first to report the experimental observation of up to 28 orders of parametric resonance, which has thus far only been envisioned in the theoretical realm. While theory has long predicted the onset of n orders of parametric resonance, previously reported experimental observations have been limited up to about the first 5 orders. This is due to the rapid narrowing nature of the frequency bandwidth of the higher instability intervals, making practical accessibility increasingly more difficult. Here, the authors have experimentally confirmed up to 28 orders of parametric resonance in a micromachined membrane resonator when electrically undamped. While the implication of this finding spans across the vibration dynamics and transducer application spectrum, the particular significance of this work is to broaden the accumulative operational frequency bandwidth of vibrationenergyharvesting for enabling self-powered microsystems. Up to 5 orders were recorded when driven at 1.0 g of acceleration across a matched load of 70 kΩ. With a natural frequency of 980 Hz, the fundamental mode direct resonance had a -3 dB bandwidth of 55 Hz, in contrast to the 314 Hz for the first order parametric resonance; furthermore, the half power bands of all 5 orders accumulated to 478 Hz. PMID:27445205

This paper contends to be the first to report the experimental observation of up to 28 orders of parametric resonance, which has thus far only been envisioned in the theoretical realm. While theory has long predicted the onset of n orders of parametric resonance, previously reported experimental observations have been limited up to about the first 5 orders. This is due to the rapid narrowing nature of the frequency bandwidth of the higher instability intervals, making practical accessibility increasingly more difficult. Here, the authors have experimentally confirmed up to 28 orders of parametric resonance in a micromachined membrane resonator when electrically undamped. While the implication of this finding spans across the vibration dynamics and transducer application spectrum, the particular significance of this work is to broaden the accumulative operational frequency bandwidth of vibrationenergyharvesting for enabling self-powered microsystems. Up to 5 orders were recorded when driven at 1.0 g of acceleration across a matched load of 70 kΩ. With a natural frequency of 980 Hz, the fundamental mode direct resonance had a ‑3 dB bandwidth of 55 Hz, in contrast to the 314 Hz for the first order parametric resonance; furthermore, the half power bands of all 5 orders accumulated to 478 Hz.

This paper presents a fundamental investigation into scaling effects for the mechanical properties and electrical output power of piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvesters. The mechanical properties investigated in this paper include resonant frequency of the harvester and its frequency tunability, which is essential for the harvester to operate efficiently under broadband excitations. Electrical output power studied includes cases when the harvester is excited under both constant vibration acceleration and constant vibration amplitude. The energyharvester analysed in this paper is based on a cantilever structure, which is typical of most vibrationenergyharvesters. Both detailed mathematical derivation and simulation are presented. Furthermore, various piezoelectric materials used in MEMS and non-MEMS harvesters are also considered in the scaling analysis.

The use of bistable laminates is a potential approach to realize broadband piezoelectric-based energyharvesting by introducing elastic non-linearities to the system. In this paper the dynamic response of a piezoelectric material attached to a bistable laminate beam is examined based on the experimental measurement of the generated voltage-time series. The system was subjected to harmonic excitations and exhibited single-well and snap-through vibrations of both periodic and chaotic character. The ability to identify the vibration modes of the energyharvester is important since different levels of power are expected in each dynamic mode. We identify the dynamics of the selected system response using return maps, multiscale entropy, and "0-1" test. The potential of the approaches to identify periodic and chaotic modes and snap-through events in the non-linear bistable harvester is described.

This review presents possible strategies to increase the operational frequency range of vibration-based micro-generators. Most vibration-based micro-generators are spring-mass-damper systems which generate maximum power when the resonant frequency of the generator matches the frequency of the ambient vibration. Any difference between these two frequencies can result in a significant decrease in generated power. This is a fundamental limitation of resonant vibration generators which restricts their capability in real applications. Possible solutions include the periodic tuning of the resonant frequency of the generator so that it matches the frequency of the ambient vibration at all times or widening the bandwidth of the generator. Periodic tuning can be achieved using mechanical or electrical methods. Bandwidth widening can be achieved using a generator array, a mechanical stopper, nonlinear (e.g. magnetic) springs or bi-stable structures. Tuning methods can be classified into intermittent tuning (power is consumed periodically to tune the device) and continuous tuning (the tuning mechanism is continuously powered). This review presents a comprehensive review of the principles and operating strategies for increasing the operating frequency range of vibration-based micro-generators presented in the literature to date. The advantages and disadvantages of each strategy are evaluated and conclusions are drawn regarding the relevant merits of each approach.

In this paper, an innovative strategy for improving the performance of a recently developed rotational energyharvester is proposed. Its performance can be considerably enhanced by replacing the electromagnetic induction part, consisting of moving permanent magnets and a fixed solenoid coil, with a moving mass and a rotational generator (i.e., an electric motor). The proposed system is easily tuned to the natural frequency of a target structure using the position change of a proof mass. Owing to the high efficiency of the rotational generator, the device can more effectively harness electrical energy from the wind-induced vibration of a stay cable. Also, this new configuration makes the device more compact and geometrically tunable. In order to validate the effectiveness of the new configuration, a series of laboratory and field tests are carried out with the prototype of the proposed device, which is designed and fabricated based on the dynamic characteristics of the vibration of a stay cable installed in an in-service cable-stayed bridge. From the field test, it is observed that the normalized output power of the proposed system is 35.67 mW (m s-2)-2, while that of the original device is just 5.47 mW (m s-2)-2. These results show that the proposed device generates much more electrical energy than the original device. Moreover, it is verified that the proposed device can generate sufficient electricity to power a wireless sensor node placed on a cable under gentle-moderate wind conditions.

Piezoelectric materials convert mechanical deformation directly into electrical charges, which can be harvested and used to drive micropower electronic devices. The low power consumption of such systems on the scale of microwatts leads to the possibility of using harvestedvibrationalenergy due to its almost universal nature. Vibrationalenergyharvested using piezoelectric cantilevers provides sufficient output for small-scale power applications. This work reports on vibrationalenergyharvesting from free-falling droplets at the tip of lead zirconate titanate piezoelectric-based cantilevers. The harvester incorporates a multimorph clamped-free cantilever made of lead zirconate titanate piezoelectric thick films. During the impact, the droplet's kinetic energy is transferred to the form of mechanical stress, forcing the piezoelectric structure to vibrate and thereby producing charges. Experimental results show an instantaneous drop-power of 2.15 mW cm-3 g-1. The scenario of a medium intensity of falling water drops, i.e., 200 drops per second, yielded a power of 0.48 W cm-3 g-1 per second.

A multiphysics model of a hybrid piezoelectric-electromagnetic vibrationenergyharvester (VEH), including the main sources of nonlinearities, is developed. The continuum problem is derived on the basis of the extended Hamilton principle, and the modal Galerkin decomposition method is used in order to obtain a reduced-order model consisting of a nonlinear Duffing equation of motion coupled with two transduction equations. The resulting system is solved analytically using the method of multiple time scales and numerically by means of the harmonic balance method coupled with the asymptotic numerical continuation technique. Closed-form expressions for the moving magnet critical amplitude and the critical load resistance are provided in order to allow evaluation of the linear dynamic range of the proposed device. Several numerical simulations have been performed to highlight the performance of the hybrid VEH. In particular, the power density and the frequency bandwidth can be boosted, by up to 60% and 29% respectively, compared to those for a VEH with pure magnetic levitation thanks to the nonlinear elastic guidance. Moreover, the hybrid transduction permits enhancement of the power density by up to 84%.

This paper presents a theoretical study of the coupling between a vortex-induced vibration (VIV) cylindrical resonator and its associated linear electromagnetic generator. The two-equation mathematical model is based on a dual-mass formulation in which the dominant masses are the stator and translator masses of the generator. The fluid-structure interaction implemented in the model equations follows the so-called ‘advanced forcing model’ whose closure relies on experimental data. The rationale to carry out the study is the fact that in these types of configurations there is a two-way interaction between the moving parts in such a way that their motions influence each other simultaneously, thereby affecting the energy actually harvested. It is believed that instead of mainly resorting to complementary numerical simulations, a theoretical model can shed some light on the nature of the interaction and, at the same time, provide scaling laws that can be used for practical design and optimization purposes. It has been found that the proposed configuration has a maximum hydrodynamic to mechanical to electrical conversion efficiency (based on the VIV resonator oscillation amplitude) of 8%. For a cylindrical resonator 10 cm long with a 2 cm diameter, this translates into an output power of 20 to 160 mW for water stream velocities in the range from 0.5 to 1 m s-1.

Energyharvesters are devices that convert mechanical energy, usually vibration, into electrical energy that can be used to supply low power circuits (e.g. sensors). In this work, an energyharvester is designed for converting the mechanical energy of the lateral vibrations of shafts into electrical energy. For that, permanent magnets are mounted in the shaft and coils are mounted in a fixed structure. A configuration analysis is performed to find the appropriated polarization of the magnets and orientation of the coils in order to have electromagnetic induction without resisting torque on the shaft. Experimental tests are done for different electrical configurations of the coils: independent, in series and, in parallel. The results show that more electric power is induced when the coils are connected in series, and vibration reduction is more evident when the coils are connected independently.

This paper reports on an electrostatic VibrationEnergyHarvester (e-VEH) system, for which the energy conversion process is initiated with a low bias voltage and is compatible with wideband stochastic external vibrations. The system employs the auto-synchronous conditioning circuit topology with the use of a novel dedicated integrated low-power high-voltage switch that is needed to connect the charge pump and flyback - two main parts of the used conditioning circuit. The proposed switch is designed and implemented in AMS035HV CMOS technology. Thanks to the proposed switch device, which is driven with a low-voltage ground-referenced logic, the e-VEH system may operate within a large voltage range, from a pre-charge low voltage up to several tens volts. With such a high-voltage e-VEH operation, it is possible to obtain a strong mechanical coupling and a high rate of vibrationenergy conversion. The used transducer/resonator device is fabricated with a batch-processed MEMS technology. When excited with stochastic vibrations having an acceleration level of 0.8 g rms distributed in the band 110-170 Hz, up to 0.75 μW of net electrical power has been harvested with our system. This work presents an important milestone in the challenge of designing a fully integrated smart conditioning interface for the capacitive e-VEHs.

The transfer of energy between systems is a natural process, manifesting in many different ways. In engineering transferable energy can be considered wanted or unwanted. Specifically in mechanical systems, energy transfer can occur as unwanted vibrations, passing from a source to a receiver. In electrical systems, energy transfer can be desirable, where energy from a source may be used elsewhere. This work proposes a method to combine the two, converting unwanted mechanical energy into useable electrical energy. A nonlinear energy sink (NES) is a vibration absorber that passively localizes vibrationalenergy, removing mechanical energy from a primary system. Consisting of a mass-spring-damper such that the stiffness is essentially nonlinear, a NES can localize vibrationalenergy from a source and dissipate it through damping. Replacing the NES mass with a series of magnets surrounded by coils fixed to the primary mass, the dissipated energy can be directly converted to electrical energy. A NES with energyharvesting properties is constructed and introduced. The system parameters are identified, with the NES having an essentially cubic nonlinear stiffness. A transduction factor is quantified linking the electrical and mechanical systems. An analytic analysis is carried out studying the transient and harmonically excited response of the system. It is found that the energyharvesting does not reduce the vibrational absorption capabilities of the NES. The performance of the system in both transient and harmonically excited responses is found to be heavily influenced by input energies. The system is tested, with good match to analytic results.

Electronic devices are high demand commodities in today's world, and such devices will continue increasing in popularity. Currently, batteries are implemented to provide power to these devices; however, the need for battery replacement, their cost, and the waste associated with battery disposal present a need for advances in self-powered technology. Energyharvesting technology has great potential to alleviate the drawbacks of batteries. In this work, a novel piezoelectret foam material is investigated for low-level energyharvesting. Specifically, piezoelectret foam assembled in a multilayer stack configuration is explored. Modeling and experimentation of the stack behavior when excited in compression at low frequencies are performed to investigate piezoelectret foam as a multilayer energyharvester. An examination of modeling piezoelectret foam as a stack with an equivalent circuit is made following recently published work and is used in this study. A 20-layer prototype device is fabricated and experimentally tested via harmonic base excitation. Electromechanical testing is performed by compressing the foam stack to obtain output electrical energy; consequently, allowing the frequency response between input mechanical energy and output electrical energy to be developed. Modeling results are compared to the experimental measurements to assess the fidelity of the model. Lastly, energyharvesting experimentation in which the device is subject to harmonic base excitation at the natural frequency is conducted to determine the ability of the piezoelectret foam stack to successfully charge a capacitor.

This paper reviewed the state of research on piezoelectric energyharvesters. Various types of harvester configurations, piezoelectric materials, and techniques used to improve the mechanical-to-electrical energy conversion efficiency were discussed. Most of the piezoelectric energyharvesters studied today have focused on scavenging mechanical energy from vibration sources due to their abundance in both natural and industrial environments. Cantilever beams have been the most studied structure for piezoelectric energyharvester to date because of the high responsiveness to small vibrations.

An important limitation in the classical energyharvesters based on cantilever beam structure is its monodirectional sensibility. The external excitation must generate an orthogonal acceleration from the beam plane to induced flexural deformation. If the direction of the excitation deviates from this privileged direction, the harvester output power is drastically reduced. This point is obviously very restrictive in the case of an arbitrary excitation direction induced for example by human body movements or vehicles vibrations. In order to overcome this issue of the conventional resonant cantilever configuration with seismic mass, a multidirectional harvester is introduced here by the authors. The multidirectional ability relies on the exploitation of 3 degenerate structural vibration modes where each of them is induced by the corresponding component of the acceleration vector. This specific structure has been already used for 3 axis accelerometers but the approach is here totally revisited because the final functional goal is different. This paper presents the principle and the design considerations of such multidirectional piezoelectric energyharvester. A finite element model has been used for the harvester optimisation. It has been shown that the seismic mass is a relevant parameter for the modes tuning because the resonant frequency of the 1st exploited flexural mode directly depends on the mass whereas the resonance frequency of the 2nd flexural mode depends on its moment of inertia. A simplified centimetric prototype limited to a two orthogonal direction sensibility has permitted to valid the theoretical approach.

In this paper we investigated the effects of built-in stress on the dielectric and piezoelectric properties of sputtered AlN layers, meant to be implemented in micromachined piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvesters. Test structures including cantilevers, 4-point bending beams and metal-insulator-metal capacitors were manufactured with reactive sputtered AlN layers in a thickness range of 400-1200 nm. Various bias conditions during the deposition process allowed controlling the built-in stress level in the layers, from tensile to compressive. The clamped dielectric permittivity ɛ33S, the voltage response and the piezoelectric coefficient e31 of the deposited AlN layers were measured by performing capacitance, voltage-deflection and 4-point bending measurements, respectively. In addition, we obtained from electrical impedance analyses the generalized electromechanical coupling (GEMC) and the quality factors of the fabricated test cantilevers, which are the critical parameters directly connected to the performance of the device in terms of energyharvesting. It is found that the permittivity ɛ33S and the piezoelectric constant e31 were not significantly affected by the different stress levels for a given layer thickness. However, the GEMC and the quality factor were found to be decreasing for structures that have a larger residual stress. We concluded that large residual stress has to be avoided in order to optimize the output power of AlN-based vibrationharvesters.

Power generation schemes that could be used downhole in an oil well to produce about 1 Watt average power with long-life (decades) are actively being developed. A variety of proposed energyharvesting schemes could be used to extract energy from this environment but each of these has their own limitations that limit their practical use. Since vibrating piezoelectric structures are solid state and can be driven below their fatigue limit, harvesters based on these structures are capable of operating for very long lifetimes (decades); thereby, possibly overcoming a principle limitation of existing technology based on rotating turbo-machinery. An initial survey [1] identified that spline nozzle configurations can be used to excite a vibrating piezoelectric structure in such a way as to convert the abundant flow energy into useful amounts of electrical power. This paper presents current flow energyharvesting designs and experimental results of specific spline nozzle/ bimorph design configurations which have generated suitable power per nozzle at or above well production analogous flow rates. Theoretical models for non-dimensional analysis and constitutive electromechanical model are also presented in this paper to optimize the flow harvesting system.

We report on the existence of unidirectional phononic band gaps that may span over extended regions of the Brillouin zone and can find application in trapping elastic (acoustic) waves in properly designed multilayered 3D structures. Phononic isolators operate as a result of asymmetrical wave transmission through a slab of a crystallographic phononic structure with broken mirror symmetry. Due to the use of lossless materials in the crystal, the absorption rate is dramatically enhanced when the proposed isolator is placed next to a vibrationalharvesting cell. xml:lang="fr"

Research in vibrationenergyharvesting focuses increasingly on nonlinear harvesters. In comparison to linear harvesters they show an inherent larger bandwidth through hardening or softening effects and higher conversion efficiency. A further increase of the bandwidth and thus a higher energy yield can be achieved by controlled tuning of such a nonlinear system. In this paper a self-sufficient tuning control electronic, which is directly powered by the harvester, is presented.

Aeroelastic instabilities have been frequently exploited for energyharvesting purpose to power standalone electronic systems, such as wireless sensors. Meanwhile, various energyharvesting interface circuits, such as synchronized charge extraction (SCE) and synchronized switching harvesting on inductor (SSHI), have been widely pursued in the literature for efficiency enhancement of energyharvesting from existing base vibrations. These interfaces, however, have not been applied for aeroelastic energyharvesting. This paper investigates the feasibility of the SCE interface in galloping-based piezoelectric energyharvesting, with a focus on its benefit for performance improvement and influence on the galloping dynamics in different electromechanical coupling regimes. A galloping-based piezoelectric energyharvester (GPEH) is prototyped with an aluminum cantilever bonded with a piezoelectric sheet. Wind tunnel test is conducted with a simple electrical interface composed of a resistive load. Circuit simulation is performed with equivalent circuit representation of the GPEH system and confirmed by experimental results. Consequently, a self-powered SCE interface is implemented with the capability of self peak-detecting and switching. Circuit simulation for various electromechanical coupling cases shows that the harvested power with SCE interface for GPEH is independent of the electrical load, similar to that for a vibration-based piezoelectric energyharvester (VPEH). The SCE interface outperforms the standard interface if the electromechanical coupling is weak, and requires much less piezoelectric material to achieve the maximum power output. Moreover, influence of electromechanical coupling on the dynamics of GPEH with SCE is found sensitive to the wind speed.

Linear and nonlinear vibrationenergyharvesting has been the focus of considerable research in recent years. However, fundamental limits on the harvestableenergy of a harvester subjected to an arbitrary excitation force and different constraints is not yet fully understood. Understanding these limits is not only essential for an assessment of the technology potential, but it also provides a broader perspective on the current harvesting mechanisms and guidance in their improvement. Here, we derive the fundamental limits on the output power of an ideal energyharvester for arbitrary excitation waveforms and build on the current analysis framework for the simple computation of this limit for more sophisticated setups. We show that the optimal harvester maximizes the harvestedenergy through a mechanical analog of a buy-low-sell-high strategy. We also propose a nonresonant passive latch-assisted harvester to realize this strategy for an effective harvesting. It is shown that the proposed harvesterharvestsenergy more effectively than its linear and bistable counterparts over a wider range of excitation frequencies and amplitudes. The buy-low-sell-high strategy also reveals why the conventional bistable harvester works well at low-frequency excitation.

A novel three-dimensional (3D) electret-based micro power generator with multiple vibration modes has been developed, which is capable of converting low-level ambient kinetic energy to electrical energy. The device is based on a rotational symmetrical resonator which consists of a movable disc-shaped seismic mass suspended by three sets of spiral springs. Experimental analysis shows that the proposed generator operates at an out-of-plane direction at mode I of 66 Hz and two in-plane directions at mode II of 75 Hz and mode III of 78.5 Hz with a phase difference of about 90°. A corona localized charging method is also proposed that employs a shadow mask and multiple discharge needles for the production of micro-sized electret array. From tests conducted at an acceleration of 0.05 g, the prototype can generate a maximum power of 4.8 nW, 0.67 nW and 1.2 nW at vibration modes of I, II and III, respectively. These values correspond to the normalized power densities of 16 µW cm-3 g-2, 2.2 µW cm-3 g-2 and 4 µW cm-3 g-2, respectively. The results show that the generator can potentially offer an intriguing alternative for scavenging low-level ambient energy from 3D vibration sources.

This paper provides an overview of energyharvesting using ferroelectric materials, with a particular focus on the energyharvesting capabilities of porous ferroelectric ceramics for both piezo- and pyroelectric harvesting. The benefits of introducing porosity into ferro- electrics such as lead zirconate titanate (PZT) has been known for over 30 years, but the potential advantages for energyharvesting from both ambient vibrations and temperature fluctuations have not been studied in depth. The article briefly discusses piezoelectric and pyro- electric energyharvesting, before evaluating the potential benefits of porous materials for increasing energyharvesting figures of merits and electromechanical/electrothermal coupling factors. Established processing routes are evaluated in terms of the final porous structure and the resulting effects on the electrical, thermal and mechanical properties.

Recent progresses in electronics allow powering complex systems using either batteries or environmental energyharvesting. However using batteries raises the problems of limited lifespan and recycling process, leading to the research of other energy sources for mobile electronics. Recent work on Synchronized Switch Harvesting (SSH) shows a significant improvement of energyharvesting from vibrations compared to standard techniques. Nevertheless, harvestingenergy from vibrations necessitates that the electromechanical structure has to be driven by mechanical solicitations, which generally have a limited amount of energy. Therefore, for the design of efficient and truly applicable self-powered devices, combining several sources for energyharvesting would be greatly beneficial. Thermal energy is rarely considered due to the difficulty of getting efficient devices. However, the potential of such a source is one of the most important. This paper deals with energyharvesting using either piezoelectric or pyroelectric effect. Theoretical and experimental validations of thermal energyharvesting are presented and discussed. Standard thermodynamic cycles may be adapted in order to improve conversion effectiveness. Experimental converted energy as high as 160 mJ.cm -3.cycle -1 has been measured with a 35°C temperature variation, corresponding to 2.15% of Carnot efficiency.

Over the past few years, nonlinear oscillators have been given growing attention due to their ability to enhance the performance of energyharvesting devices by increasing the frequency bandwidth. Duffing oscillators are a type of nonlinear oscillator characterized by a symmetric hardening or softening cubic restoring force. In order to realize the cubic nonlinearity in a cantilever at reasonable excitation levels, often an external magnetic field or mechanical load is imposed, since the inherent geometric nonlinearity would otherwise require impractically high excitation levels to be pronounced. As an alternative to magnetoelastic structures and other complex forms of symmetric Duffing oscillators, an M-shaped nonlinear bent beam with clamped end conditions is presented and investigated for bandwidth enhancement under base excitation. The proposed M-shaped oscillator made of spring steel is very easy to fabricate as it does not require extra discrete components to assemble, and furthermore, its asymmetric nonlinear behavior can be pronounced yielding broadband behavior under low excitation levels. For a prototype configuration, linear and nonlinear system parameters extracted from experiments are used to develop a lumped-parameter mathematical model. Quadratic damping is included in the model to account for nonlinear dissipative effects. A multi-term harmonic balance solution is obtained to study the effects of higher harmonics and a constant term. A single-term closed-form frequency response equation is also extracted and compared with the multi-term harmonic balance solution. It is observed that the single-term solution overestimates the frequency of upper saddle-node bifurcation point and underestimates the response magnitude in the large response branch. Multi-term solutions can be as accurate as time-domain solutions, with the advantage of significantly reduced computation time. Overall, substantial bandwidth enhancement with increasing base excitation is

We study the dynamics of h-BN monolayers by first performing ab-initio calculations of the deformation potential energy and then solving numerically a Langevine-type equation to explore their use in nonlinear vibrationenergyharvesting devices. An applied compressive strain is used to drive the system into a nonlinear bistable regime, where quasi-harmonic vibrations are combined with low-frequency swings between the minima of a double-well potential. Due to its intrinsic piezoelectric response, the nonlinear mechanical harvester naturally provides an electrical power that is readily available or can be stored by simply contacting the monolayer at its ends. Engineering the induced nonlinearity, a 20 nm2 device is predicted to harvest an electrical power of up to 0.18 pW for a noisy vibration of 5 pN. PMID:24722065

The narrow bandwidth of resonant vibrationenergyharvesters has long been seen as a drawback to exploitation. The narrow bandwidth is necessitated by the requirement to sufficiently amplify small source vibrations, but results in devices vulnerable to changes in excitation frequency, de-tuning due to ageing of components, and also makes efficient harvesting from sources with multiple frequency components difficult. In this paper a harvester based on a 2 degree of freedom oscillator is presented that not only enjoys the wider bandwidth of the higher order system, but configures the electromagnetic transducer in such a way that it requires no more components than the transducer of a typical single degree of freedom harvester. Theoretical models of the harvester system predict a range of possible frequency response functions dependent on easily-adjusted electrical parameters. These predictions are validated with experimental results.

Environmental concerns coupled with the depletion of fuel sources has led to research on ethanol, fuel cells, and even generating electricity from vibrations. Much of the research in these areas is stalling due to expensive or environmentally contaminating processes, however recent breakthroughs in materials and production has created a surge in research on waste heat energyharvesting devices. The thermoelectric generators (TEGs) used in waste heat energyharvesting are governed by the Thermoelectric, or Seebeck, effect, generating electricity from a temperature gradient. Some research to date has featured platforms such as heavy duty diesel trucks, model airplanes, and automobiles, attempting to either eliminate heavy batteries or the alternator. A motorcycle is another platform that possesses some very promising characteristics for waste heat energyharvesting, mainly because the exhaust pipes are exposed to significant amounts of air flow. A 1995 Kawasaki Ninja 250R was used for these trials. The module used in these experiments, the Melcor HT3-12-30, produced an average of 0.4694 W from an average temperature gradient of 48.73 °C. The mathematical model created from the Thermoelectric effect equation and the mean Seebeck coefficient displayed by the module produced an average error from the experimental data of 1.75%. Although the module proved insufficient to practically eliminate the alternator on a standard motorcycle, the temperature data gathered as well as the examination of a simple, yet accurate, model represent significant steps in the process of creating a TEG capable of doing so.

This paper presents a new technique for optimized energyharvesting using piezoelectric microgenerators called double synchronized switch harvesting (DSSH). This technique consists of a nonlinear treatment of the output voltage of the piezoelectric element. It also integrates an intermediate switching stage that ensures an optimal harvested power whatever the load connected to the microgenerator. Theoretical developments are presented considering either constant vibration magnitude, constant driving force, or independent extraction. Then experimental measurements are carried out to validate the theoretical predictions. This technique exhibits a constant output power for a wide range of load connected to the microgenerator. In addition, the extracted power obtained using such a technique allows a gain up to 500% in terms of maximal power output compared with the standard energyharvesting method. It is also shown that such a technique allows a fine-tuning of the trade-off between vibration damping and energyharvesting. PMID:18986861

Magnetostrictive Fe-Ga and Fe-Al alloys are promising materials for use in bending-mode vibrationalenergyharvesters. For this study, 50.8 mm × 5.0 mm × 0.5 mm strips of Fe-Ga and Fe-Al were cut from 0.50-mm thick rolled sheet. An atmospheric anneal was used to develop a Goss texture through an abnormal grain growth process. The anneal lead to large (011) grains that covered over 90% of sample surface area. The resulting highly-textured Fe-Ga and Fe-Al strips exhibited saturation magnetostriction values (λsat = λ∥ - λ⊥) of ˜280 ppm and ˜130 ppm, respectively. To maximize 90° rotation of magnetic moments during bending of the strips, we employed compressive stress annealing (SA). Samples were heated to 500°C, and a 100-150 MPa compressive stress was applied while at 500°C for 30 minutes and while being cooled. The effectiveness of the SA on magnetic moment rotation was inferred by comparing post-SA magnetostriction with the maximum possible yield of rotated magnetic moments, which is achieved when λ∥ = λsat and λ⊥ = 0. The uniformity of the SA along the sample length and the impact of the SA on sensing/energyharvesting performance were then assessed by comparing pre- and post-SA bending-stress-induced changes in magnetization at five different locations along the samples. The SA process with a 150 MPa compressive load improved Fe-Ga actuation along the sample length from 170 to 225 ppm (from ˜60% to within ˜80% of λsat). The corresponding sensing/energyharvesting performance improved by as much as a factor of eight in the best sample, however the improvement was not at all uniform along the sample length. The SA process with a 100 MPa compressive load improved Fe-Al actuation along the sample length from 60 to 73 ppm (from ˜46% to ˜56% of λsat, indicating only a marginally effective SA and suggesting the need for modification of the SA protocol. In spite of this, the SA was effective at improving the sensing/energyharvesting

Bistable energyharvesting has become a major field of research due to some unique features for converting mechanical energy into electrical power. When properly loaded, bistable structures snap-through from one stable configuration to another, causing large strains and consequently power generation. Moreover, bistable structures can harvestenergy across a broad-frequency bandwidth due to their nonlinear characteristics. Despite the fact that snap-through may be triggered regardless of the form or frequency of exciting vibration, the external force must reach a specific snap-through activation threshold value to trigger the transition from one stable state to another. This aspect is a limiting factor for realistic vibrationenergyharvesting application with bistable devices. This paper presents a novel power harvesting concept for bistable composites based on a ‘lever effect’ aimed at minimising the activation force to cause the snap through by choosing properly the bistable structures’ constraints. The concept was demonstrated with the help of numerical simulation and experimental testing. The results showed that the actuation force is one order of magnitude smaller (3%-6%) than the activation force of conventionally constrained bistable devices. In addition, it was shown that the output voltage was higher than the conventional configuration, leading to a significant increase in power generation. This novel concept could lead to a new generation of more efficient bistable energyharvesters for realistic vibration environments.

This paper reviews the state of the art in piezoelectric energyharvesting. It presents the basics of piezoelectricity and discusses materials choice. The work places emphasis on material operating modes and device configurations, from resonant to non-resonant devices and also to rotational solutions. The reviewed literature is compared based on power density and bandwidth. Lastly, the question of power conversion is addressed by reviewing various circuit solutions. PMID:24618725

This paper investigates energyharvesting using nonlinear energy sink. First a novel apparatus is described in detail outlining how the essential nonlinearity and energyharvesting are achieved. Then the system modeling is addressed, including the equations of motion for the mechanical system and the electromechanical system, and a formula for the transduction factor. The experimental identification is conducted to determine several key parameters and relationships. Using the established models, a computer simulation is carried out to investigate the apparatuss performance under transient responses in terms of vibration absorption and energyharvesting. Finally experiments are conducted to validate the simulation results. It is shown that the system performs well, being capable of energy localization as well as broad band vibration absorption. The system is also shown to be capable of harvestingenergy.

This study seeks to propose a novel approach to wind-based piezoelectric energyharvesting. A brief literature review of energyharvesting followed by a discussion of piezoelectric system dynamics is offered. Biomedical applications for piezoelectric energyharvesting are then presented offering a segue into fluid based energyharvesting. Fluid based energyharvesting is a relatively young subfield within piezoelectric energyharvesting, but it is increasingly pursued due to the ubiquitous nature of the excitation source as well as the strong correlation with other types of excitation. Vortex-induced vibrations (VIV), as well as vibrations induced by bluff bodies, and the effect of their shape on potential gains have been investigated. The interactions of VIVs on a flag-like membrane form the foundation for the piezoelectric energyharvester in this study. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric energyharvesters are chosen due to their desirable flexibility. Modeling of flag-like systems is review followed by system modeling of a PVDF piezoelectric flag. Numerical and experimental results from the PVDF flag-like piezoelectric energyharvester are generated and compared. A maximum power output of 1.5 mW is achieved with the flag-like system which is competitive when compared to power output and energy density levels of other studies. The power output of this system provides concrete evidence for the effective use of not only this type of energyharvester system model but also for the use of PVDFs in wind-based applications.

This paper reports on a self-adaptive energyharvesting system, which is able to adapt its eigenfrequency to the operating conditions of power units. The power required for frequency tuning is delivered by the energyharvester itself. The tuning mechanism is based on a magnetic concept and incorporates a circular tuning magnet and a coupling magnet. In this manner, both coupling modes (attractive and repulsive) can be utilized for tuning the eigenfrequency of the energyharvester. The tuning range and its center frequency can be tailored to the application by careful design of the spring stiffness and the gap between tuning magnet and coupling magnet. Experimental results demonstrate that, in contrast to a conventional non-tunable vibrationenergyharvester, the net power can be significantly increased if a self-adaptive system is utilized, although additional power is required for regular adjustments of the eigenfrequency. The outcome confirms that active tuning is a real and practical option to extend the operational frequency range and to increase the net power of a conventional vibrationenergyharvester.

Recent evidence suggests that quantum effects may have functional importance in biological light-harvesting systems. Along with delocalized electronic excitations, it is now suspected that quantum coherent interactions with certain near-resonant vibrations may contribute to light-harvesting performance. However, the actual quantum advantage offered by such coherent vibrational interactions has not yet been established. We investigate a quantum design principle, whereby coherent exchange of single energy quanta between electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom can enhance a light-harvesting system’s power above what is possible by thermal mechanisms alone. We present a prototype quantum heat engine which cleanly illustrates this quantum design principle and quantifies its quantum advantage using thermodynamic measures of performance. We also demonstrate the principle’s relevance in parameter regimes connected to natural light-harvesting structures.

This article proposes an array of nonlinear piezomagnetoelastic energyharvesters (NPEHs) for scavenging electrical energy from broadband vibrations with low amplitudes (<2 m/s2). The array consists of monostable NPEHs combined to generate useful power output (˜100 μW) over wide bandwidth. The nonlinearity in each of the NPEHs is induced by the magnetic interaction between an embedded magnet in the tip mass of cantilever and a fixed magnet clamped to the rigid platform. The dynamic responses of two NPEHs, one with attractive configuration and the other with repulsive configuration, are combined to achieve a bandwidth of 3.3 Hz at a power level of 100 μW. A parametric study is carried out to obtain the gap distances between the magnets to achieve wide bandwidth. Experiments are performed to validate the proposed idea, the theoretical predictions, and to demonstrate the advantage of array of NPEHs over the array of linear piezoelectric energyharvesters (LPEHs). The experiments have clearly shown the advantage of NPEH array over its linear counterpart under both harmonic and random excitations. Approximately, 100% increase in the operation bandwidth is achieved by the NPEH array at harmonic excitation level of 2 m/s2. The NPEH array exhibits up to 80% improvement in the accumulated energy under random excitation when compared with the LPEH array. Furthermore, the performance of NPEH array with series and parallel connections between the individual harvesters using standard AC/DC interface circuits is also investigated and compared with its linear counterpart.

Ferroelectric materials are used in a number of applications ranging from simple sensors and actuators to ferroelectric random access memories (FRAMs), transducers, health monitoring system and microelectronics. The multiphysical coupling ability possessed by these materials has been established to be useful for energyharvesting applications. However, conventional energyharvesting techniques employing ferroelectric materials possess low energy density. This has prevented the successful commercialization of ferroelectric based energyharvesting systems. In this context, the present study aims at proposing a novel approach for enhanced energyharvesting using commercially available ferroelectric materials. This technique was simulated to be used for two commercially available piezoelectric materials namely PKI-552 and APCI-840, soft and hard lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) pervoskite ceramics, respectively. It was observed that a maximum energy density of 348 kJm-3cycle-1 can be obtained for cycle parameters of (0-1 ton compressive stress and 1-25 kV.cm-1 electric field) using APCI-840. The reported energy density is several hundred times larger than the maximum energy density reported in the literature for vibrationharvesting systems.

A piezoelectric energyharvester is an electromechanical device that converts ambient mechanical vibration into electric power. Most existing vibrationenergyharvesting devices operate effectively at a single frequency only, dictated by the design of the device. This frequency must match the frequency of the host structure vibration. However, real world structural vibrations rarely have a specific constant frequency. Therefore, piezoelectric harvesters that generate usable power across a range of exciting frequencies are required to make this technology commercially viable. Currently known harvester tuning techniques have many limitations, in particular they miss the ability to work during harvester operation and most often cannot perform a precise tuning. This paper describes the design and testing of a vibrationenergyharvester with tunable resonance frequency, wherein the tuning is accomplished by changing the attraction force between two permanent magnets by adjusting the distance between the magnets. This tuning technique allows the natural frequency to be manipulated before and during operation of the harvester. Furthermore the paper presents a physical description of the frequency tuning effect. The experimental results achieved with a piezoelectric bimorph fit the calculated results very well. The calculation and experimental results show that using this tuning technique the natural frequency of the harvester can be varied efficiently within a wide range: in the test setup, the natural frequency of the piezoelectric bimorph could be increased by more than 70%.

This paper addresses a particular type of power harvesting in which energy in the periodic movement of structures is parasitically converted to stored electric charge. In such applications, tuning of the vibration power harvesters' resonance frequency is often required to match the host structures' forcing frequency. This paper presents a method of adjusting the boundary conditions of nonlinear stiffness elements as a means of tuning the resonance frequency of piezoelectric vibration power harvesters (altering the deformation mode from bending to in-plane stretching). Using this tuning method, the resonance frequency was experimentally varied between 56 and 62 Hz. For a vibration level of 2 mm/s, the harvester has a similar Q to a linear system but its Q is reduced by one third at a vibration level of 10 mm/s. This behavior is important for applications where high sensitivity is required for low vibration levels but mechanical robustness is required for high vibration levels.

Vibrationenergyharvesting using piezoelectric materials has attracted much research interest in recent years. Numerous efforts have been devoted to improving the efficiency of vibrationenergyharvesters and broadening their bandwidths. In most reported literature, energyharvesters are designed to harvestenergy from vibration source with a specific excitation direction. However, a practical environmental vibration source may include multiple components from different directions. Thus, it is an important concern to design a vibrationenergyharvester to be adaptive to multiple excitation directions. In this article, a piezoelectric energyharvester with frame configuration is proposed to achieve two-dimensional (2D) vibrationenergyharvesting. The harvester works in two fundamental modes, i.e., its vertical and horizontal vibration modes. By tuning the structural parameters, the harvester can capture vibrationenergy from arbitrary directions in a 2D plane. Experimental studies are carried out to prove its feasibility. A finite element model and an equivalent circuit model are built to simulate the system and validate the experiment outcomes. The study of this 2D energyharvester indicates its promising potential in practical vibration scenarios.

Efficient mechanical energyharvesters enable various wearable devices and auxiliary energy supply. Here we report a novel class of mechanical energyharvesters via stress–voltage coupling in electrochemically alloyed electrodes. The device consists of two identical Li-alloyed Si as electrodes, separated by electrolyte-soaked polymer membranes. Bending-induced asymmetric stresses generate chemical potential difference, driving lithium ion flux from the compressed to the tensed electrode to generate electrical current. Removing the bending reverses ion flux and electrical current. Our thermodynamic analysis reveals that the ideal energy-harvesting efficiency of this device is dictated by the Poisson's ratio of the electrodes. For the thin-film-based energyharvester used in this study, the device has achieved a generating capacity of 15%. The device demonstrates a practical use of stress-composition–voltage coupling in electrochemically active alloys to harvest low-grade mechanical energies from various low-frequency motions, such as everyday human activities. PMID:26733282

Efficient mechanical energyharvesters enable various wearable devices and auxiliary energy supply. Here we report a novel class of mechanical energyharvesters via stress-voltage coupling in electrochemically alloyed electrodes. The device consists of two identical Li-alloyed Si as electrodes, separated by electrolyte-soaked polymer membranes. Bending-induced asymmetric stresses generate chemical potential difference, driving lithium ion flux from the compressed to the tensed electrode to generate electrical current. Removing the bending reverses ion flux and electrical current. Our thermodynamic analysis reveals that the ideal energy-harvesting efficiency of this device is dictated by the Poisson's ratio of the electrodes. For the thin-film-based energyharvester used in this study, the device has achieved a generating capacity of 15%. The device demonstrates a practical use of stress-composition-voltage coupling in electrochemically active alloys to harvest low-grade mechanical energies from various low-frequency motions, such as everyday human activities.

This paper presents an advanced design concept for a piezoelectric energyharvesting (EH), referred to as multimodal EH skin. This EH design facilitates the use of multimodal vibration and enhances power harvesting efficiency. The multimodal EH skin is an extension of our previous work, EH skin, which was an innovative design paradigm for a piezoelectric energyharvester: a vibrating skin structure and an additional thin piezoelectric layer in one device. A computational (finite element) model of the multilayered assembly - the vibrating skin structure and piezoelectric layer - is constructed and the optimal topology and/or shape of the piezoelectric layer is found for maximum power generation from multiple vibration modes. A design rationale for the multimodal EH skin was proposed: designing a piezoelectric material distribution and external resistors. In the material design step, the piezoelectric material is segmented by inflection lines from multiple vibration modes of interests to minimize voltage cancellation. The inflection lines are detected using the voltage phase. In the external resistor design step, the resistor values are found for each segment to maximize power output. The presented design concept, which can be applied to any engineering system with multimodal harmonic-vibrating skins, was applied to two case studies: an aircraft skin and a power transformer panel. The excellent performance of multimodal EH skin was demonstrated, showing larger power generation than EH skin without segmentation or unimodal EH skin. PMID:21429855

This paper presents the main characteristics of an experimental energyharvesting device that can be used to recover energy from the vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The use of a piezoelectric bender devices leads to a innovative approach to Henergy Harvesting. The study focuses on the definition and specification of a mechanical configuration able to transfer the vibration from the main box to the piezoelectric transducer. The piezoelectric devices tested is the commonly used monolithic piezoceramic material lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT). The experimental results estimate the efficiency of this device tested and identify the feasibility of their use in real world applications. The results presented in this paper show the potential of piezoelectric materials for use in power harvesting applications.

Recently, the idea of using nonlinearity to enhance the performance of vibration-based energyharvesters has been investigated. Nonlinear energyharvesting devices have been shown to be capable of operating over wider frequency ranges delivering more power than their linear counterparts, rendering them more suitable for real applications. In this paper, we propose to exploit the rich nonlinear behavior of a bistable composite plate with bonded piezoelectric patches for broadband nonlinear energyharvesting. The response of the structure is experimentally investigated revealing different large amplitude oscillations. Substantially large power is extracted over a wide frequency range achieving broadband nonlinear energyharvesting.

Low-power vibration and acoustic energyharvesting scenarios typically require a storage component to be charged to enable wireless sensor networks, which necessitates power conditioning of the AC output. Piezoelectric beam-type bending mode energyharvesters or other devices that operate using a piezoelectric element at resonance produce high voltage levels, for which AC-DC converters and step-down DC-DC converters have been previously investigated. However, for piezoelectric stack energyharvesters operating off-resonance and producing low voltage outputs, a step-up circuit is required for power conditioning, such as seen in electromagnetic vibrationenergy scavengers, RF communications, and MEMS harvesters. This paper theoretically and experimentally investigates power conditioning of a low-voltage piezoelectric stack energyharvester.

The confluence of advancements in microelectronic components and vibrationalenergyharvesting has opened the possibility of remote sensor units powered solely from the motion of their hosts. There are numerous applications of such systems, including the development of modern wildlife tracking/data-logging devices. These ‘bio-logging’ devices are typically mass-constrained because they must be carried by an animal. Thus, they have historically traded scientific capability for operational longevity due to restrictions on battery size. Recently, the precipitous decrease in the power requirements of microelectronics has been accompanied by advancements in the area of piezoelectric vibrationalenergyharvesting. These energyharvesting devices are now capable of powering the type of microelectronic circuits used in bio-logging devices. In this paper we consider the feasibility of employing these vibrationalenergyharvesters on flying vertebrates for the purpose of powering a bio-logging device. We show that the excess energy available from birds and bats could be harvested without adversely affecting their overall energy budget. We then present acceleration measurements taken on flying birds in a flight tunnel to understand modulation of flapping frequency during steady flight. Finally, we use a recently developed method of estimating the maximum power output from a piezoelectric energyharvester to determine the amount of power that could be practically harvested from a flying bird. The results of this analysis show that the average power output of a piezoelectric energyharvester mounted to a bird or bat could produce more than enough power to run a bio-logging device. We compare the power harvesting capabilities to the energy requirements of an example system and conclude that vibrationalenergyharvesting on flying birds and bats is viable and warrants further study, including testing.

A fundamental drawback of vibration-based energyharvesters is that they typically feature a resonant mass/spring mechanical system to amplify the small source vibrations; the limited bandwidth of the mechanical amplifier restricts the effectiveness of the energyharvester considerably. By extending the range of input frequencies over which a vibrationenergyharvester can generate useful power, e.g. through adaptive tuning, it is not only possible to open up a wider range of applications, such as those where the source frequency changes over time, but also possible to relax the requirements for precision manufacture or the need for mechanical adjustment in situ. In this paper, a vibration-based energyharvester connected to a generalized electrical load (containing both real and reactive impedance) is presented. It is demonstrated that the reactive component of the electrical load can be used to tune the harvester system to significantly increase the output power away from the resonant peak of the device. An analytical model of the system is developed, which includes non-ideal components arising from the physical implementation, and the results are confirmed by experiment. The - 3 dB (half-power) bandwidth of the prototype energyharvester is shown to be over three times greater when presented with an optimized load impedance compared to that for the same harvester presented with an optimized resistive only load.

The modern drive towards mobility and wireless devices is motivating intense research in energyharvesting (EH) technologies. In an effort to reduce the battery burden of people, we are investigating a novel piezoelectric wearable energyharvester. As piezoelectric EH is significantly more effective at high frequencies, in opposition to the characteristically low-frequency human activities, we propose the use of an up-conversion strategy analogous to the pizzicato musical technique. In order to guide the design of such harvester, we have modelled with Finite Elements (FE) the response and power generation of a piezoelectric bimorph while it is "plucked", i.e. deflected, then released and permitted to vibrate freely. An experimental rig has been devised and set up to reproduce the action of the bimorph in the harvester. Measurements of the voltage output and the energy dissipated across a series resistor are reported and compared with the FE predictions. As the novel harvester will feature a number of bimorphs, each plucked tens of times per step, we predict a total power output of several mW, with imperceptible effect on the wearer's gait.

We design and test micro-watt energy-harvesters inspired by tree trunks swaying in the wind. A uniform flow vibrates a linear array of four cylinders affixed to piezoelectric energy transducers. Particular attention is paid to measuring the energy generated as a function of cylinder spacing, flow speed, and relative position of the cylinder within the array. Peak power is generated using cylinder center-to-center spacings of 3.3 diameters and flow speeds in which the vortex shedding frequency is 1.6 times the natural frequency of the cylinders. Using these flow speeds and spacings, the power generated by downstream cylinders can exceed that of leading cylinders by more than an order of magnitude. We visualize the flow in this system by studying the behavior of a dynamically matched flowing soap film with imbedded styrofoam disks. Our qualitative visualizations suggest that peak energyharvesting occurs under conditions in which vortices have fully detached from the leading cylinder.

Piezomagnetoelastic energyharvesters are one among the widely explored configurations to improve the broadband characteristics of vibrationenergyharvesters. Such nonlinear harvesters follow a Moon beam model with two magnets at the base and one at the tip of the beam. The present article develops a geometric nonlinear mathematical model for the broadband piezomagnetoelastic energyharvester. The electromechanical coupling and the nonlinear magnetic potential equations are developed from the dimensional system parameters to describe the nonlinear dynamics exhibited by the system. The developed model is capable of characterizing the monostable, bistable and tristable operating regimes of the piezomagnetoelastic energyharvester, which are not explicit in the Duffing representation of the system. Bifurcations and attractor motions are analyzed as nonlinear functions of the distance between base magnets and the field strength of the tip magnet. The model is further used to characterize the potential wells and stable states, with due focus on the performance of the system in broadband energyharvesting.

The application of vibration based energyharvesting in civil infrastructures usually has to resolve two major problems, namely, the low excitation frequency and large frequency range. To this end, a nonlinear energyharvester utilizing magnet levitation is proposed in this study. The proposed harvester can convert low frequency excitations into high frequency ones in its four doubly clamped piezoelectric beams through multi-impact. A large bandwidth is expected due to the stiffness nonlinearity introduced by using magnet levitation. A theoretical model is first developed for the harvester. Then, sinusoidal vibrations and simulated bridge vibrations are used as the external excitations to verify the performance of the harvester. The simulation results show an improved robustness of the harvester under low frequency vibrations, which indicates the proposed harvester is an ideal device for energyharvesting in civil infrastructures.

Piezoelectric energyharvesting on a gas turbine implies constraints like high temperature tolerance, size limitation and a particular range of vibrations to utilise. In order to be able to operate under these conditions a harvester needs to be small and efficient and to respond to the appropriate range of frequencies. We present the design, simulation and measurements for a clamped-clamped coupled piezoelectric harvester with a free-sliding weight which adds self-tuning for improved response within the range of vibrations from the gas tufbine. We show a peak open circuit voltage of 11.7 V and a 3dB bandwidth of 12 Hz.

In this work, a novel 2 degree-of-freedom (DOF) vibrationenergyharvester is proposed. The harvester comprises one main cantilever beam and one secondary cantilever beam cut out within the main beam. By varying the proof masses, the first two resonances can be tuned close to each other, while maintaining significant magnitudes, thus providing a useful wide bandwidth for energyharvesting. Unlike previous 2-DOF harvesters, the proposed harvester is compact and utilizes the beam more efficiently by generating energy from both the main and secondary cantilevers. Therefore, the proposed harvester is more adaptive and functional in practical random or frequency-variant vibrational circumstances.

Real world systems that are candidates for vibrationalenergyharvesting rarely vibrate at a single frequency, nor are these frequencies constant over time. This necessitates that vibrationharvesters operate over a wide bandwidth or tune their resonance. Most tunable devices require additional energy or active control to achieve resonance over various frequencies. This work presents a passively self-tuning energyharvester that autonomously adapts its resonant frequency to the input without requiring additional energy. The system consists of a clamped- clamped beam, a movable proof mass, and a piezoelectric patch bonded to the underside of the beam. It demonstrated an open-circuit voltage output of 668 mVrms at 160Hz, 0.65g input excitation. Discrepancies between displacement and voltage magnification factors upon tuning at higher frequencies are discussed, as well as instabilities of the system and sensitivity to proof mass characteristics.

This paper presents a kinetic energyharvester designed to be embedded in a hip implant which aims to operate at a low frequency associated with body motion of patients. The prototype is designed based on the constrained volume available in a hip prosthesis and the challenge is to harvestenergy from low frequency movements (< 1 Hz) which is an average frequency during free walking of a patient. The concept of magnetic-force-driven energyharvesting is applied to this prototype considering the hip movements during routine activities of patients. The magnetic field within the harvester was simulated using COMSOL. The simulated resonant frequency was around 30 Hz and the voltage induced in a coil was predicted to be 47.8 mV. A prototype of the energyharvester was fabricated and tested. A maximum open circuit voltage of 39.43 mV was obtained and the resonant frequency of 28 Hz was observed. Moreover, the power output of 0.96 μW was achieved with an optimum resistive load of 250Ω.

Recently, piezoelectric MEMS have been intensively investigated to create new functional microdevices, and some of them have already been commercialized such as MEMS gyrosensors or miropumps of inkjet printer head. Piezoelectric energyharvesting is considered to be one of the promising future applications of piezoelectric MEMS. In this report, we introduce the deposition of the piezoelectric PZT thin films as well as lead-free KNN thin films. We fabricated piezoelectric energyharvesters of PZT and KNN thin films deposited on stainless steel cantilevers and compared their power generation performance.

There is a need for a long-life power generation scheme that could be used downhole in an oil well to produce 1 Watt average power. There are a variety of existing or proposed energyharvesting schemes that could be used in this environment but each of these has its own limitations. The vibrating piezoelectric structure is in principle capable of operating for very long lifetimes (decades) thereby possibly overcoming a principle limitation of existing technology based on rotating turbo-machinery. In order to determine the feasibility of using piezoelectrics to produce suitable flow energyharvesting, we surveyed experimentally a variety of nozzle configurations that could be used to excite a vibrating piezoelectric structure in such a way as to enable conversion of flow energy into useful amounts of electrical power. These included reed structures, spring mass-structures, drag and lift bluff bodies and a variety of nozzles with varying flow profiles. Although not an exhaustive survey we identified a spline nozzle/piezoelectric bimorph system that experimentally produced up to 3.4 mW per bimorph. This paper will discuss these results and present our initial analyses of the device using dimensional analysis and constitutive electromechanical modeling. The analysis suggests that an order-of-magnitude improvement in power generation from the current design is possible.

There is a need for a long-life power generation scheme that could be used downhole in an oil well to produce 1 Watt average power. There are a variety of existing or proposed energyharvesting schemes that could be used in this environment but each of these has its own limitations. The vibrating piezoelectric structure is in principle capable of operating for very long lifetimes (decades) thereby possibly overcoming a principle limitation of existing technology based on rotating turbo-machinery. In order to determine the feasibility of using piezoelectrics to produce suitable flow energyharvesting, we surveyed experimentally a variety of nozzle configurations that could be used to excite a vibrating piezoelectric structure in such a way as to enable conversion of flow energy into useful amounts of electrical power. These included reed structures, spring mass-structures, drag and lift bluff bodies and a variety of nozzles with varying flow profiles. Although not an exhaustive survey we identified a spline nozzle/piezoelectric bimorph system that experimentally produced up to 3.4 mW per bimorph. This paper will discuss these results and present our initial analyses of the device using dimensional analysis and constitutive electromechanical modeling. The analysis suggests that an order-of-magnitude improvement in power generation from the current design is possible.

With development of wireless sensor technology, wireless sensor network has shown a great potential for railway health monitoring. However, how to supply continuous power to the wireless sensor nodes is one of the critical issues in long-term full-scale deployment of the wireless smart sensors. Some energyharvesting methodologies have been available including solar, vibration, wind, etc; among them, vibration-based energyharvester using piezoelectric material showed the potential for converting ambient vibrationenergy to electric energy in railway health monitoring even for underground subway systems. However, the piezoelectric energyharvester has two major problems including that it could only generate small amount of energy, and that it should match the exact narrow band natural frequency with the excitation frequency. To overcome these problems, a wide band piezoelectric energyharvester, which could generate more power on various frequencies regions, has been designed and validated with experimental test. Then it was applied to a full-scale field test using actual railway train. The power generation of the wide band piezoelectric array has been compared to a narrow-band, resonant-based, piezoelectric energyharvester.

Vibrationenergyharvesting using piezoelectric material has received great research interest in the recent years. To enhance the performance of piezoelectric energyharvesters, one important concern is to increase their operating bandwidth. Various techniques have been proposed for broadband energyharvesting, such as the resonance tuning approach, the frequency up-conversion technique, the multi-modal harvesting and the nonlinear technique. Usually, a nonlinear piezoelectric energyharvester can be easily developed by introducing a magnetic field. Either mono-stable or bi-stable response can be achieved using different magnetic configurations. However, most of the research work for nonlinear piezoelectric energyharvesting has focused on the SDOF cantilever beam. A recently reported linear 2-DOF harvester can achieve two close resonant frequencies with significant power outputs. However, for this linear configuration, although a broader bandwidth can be achieved, there exists a deep valley in-between the two response peaks. The presence of the valley will greatly deteriorate the performance of the energyharvester. To overcome this limitation, a nonlinear 2-DOF piezoelectric energyharvester is proposed in this article. This nonlinear harvester is developed from its linear counterpart by incorporating a magnetic field using a pair of magnets. Experimental parametric study is carried out to investigate the behavior of such harvester. With different configurations, both mono-stable and bi-stable behaviors are observed and studied. An optimal configuration of the nonlinear harvester is thus obtained, which can achieve significantly wider bandwidth than the linear 2-DOF harvester and at the same time overcome its limitation.

This paper presents a tri-directional piezoelectric energyharvester that is able to harvestvibrationenergy over a wide bandwidth from three orthogonal directions. The harvester consists of a main beam, an auxiliary beam, and a spring-mass system, with magnets integrated to introduce nonlinear force and couple the three sub-systems. Theoretical analysis and experiments were performed at constant acceleration under frequency sweeps to acquire frequency responses. The experimental results show that the voltage can achieve more than 2 V over more than 5 Hz of bandwidth with 1 MΩ load in the three orthogonal directions.

This paper describes initial investigations into the behavior of a mechanical system for a proposed novel energyharvesting device. The device comprises a clamped-clamped beam piezoelectric fiber composite generator with side mounted cantilevers. These side mounted cantilevers are tuned by added masses to be resonant at different frequencies. A Rayleigh-Ritz model has been developed to predict the vibration response of the device and results from this model and from the real system are compared. The mechanical aspects of the device show a wide band energyharvesting characteristic in comparison to a single cantilever piezoelectric harvester.

This paper presents a tri-directional piezoelectric energyharvester that is able to harvestvibrationenergy over a wide bandwidth from three orthogonal directions. The harvester consists of a main beam, an auxiliary beam, and a spring-mass system, with magnets integrated to introduce nonlinear force and couple the three sub-systems. Theoretical analysis and experiments were performed at constant acceleration under frequency sweeps to acquire frequency responses. The experimental results show that the voltage can achieve more than 2 V over more than 5 Hz of bandwidth with 1 MΩ load in the three orthogonal directions.

We report the investigation of an energyharvesting system composed of coupled resonators with the magnetostrictive material Galfenol (FeGa). A coupled system of meso-scale (1-10 cm) cantilever beams for harvestingvibrationenergy is described for powering and aiding the performance of low-power wireless sensor nodes. Galfenol is chosen in this work for its durability, compared to the brittleness often encountered with piezoelectric materials, and high magnetomechanical coupling. A lumped model, which captures both the mechanical and electrical behavior of the individual transducers, is first developed. The values of the lumped element parameters are then derived empirically from fabricated beams in order to compare the model to experimental measurements. The governing equations of the coupled system lead to a system of differential equations with all-to-all coupling between transducers. An analysis of the system equations reveals different patterns of collective oscillations. Among the many different patterns, a synchronous state appears to yield the maximum energy that can be harvested by the system. Experiments on coupled system shows that the coupled system exhibits synchronization and an increment in the output power. Discussion of the required power converters is also included.

Methods, devices and systems for harvestingenergy from electromagnetic radiation are provided including harvestingenergy from electromagnetic radiation. In one embodiment, a device includes a substrate and one or more resonance elements disposed in or on the substrate. The resonance elements are configured to have a resonant frequency, for example, in at least one of the infrared, near-infrared and visible light spectra. A layer of conductive material may be disposed over a portion of the substrate to form a ground plane. An optical resonance gap or stand-off layer may be formed between the resonance elements and the ground plane. The optical resonance gap extends a distance between the resonance elements and the layer of conductive material approximately one-quarter wavelength of a wavelength of the at least one resonance element's resonant frequency. At least one energy transfer element may be associated with the at least one resonance element.

Self-powered microsystems, such as wireless transceiver microsensors, appeal to an expanding application space in monitoring, control, and diagnosis for commercial, industrial, military, space, and biomedical products. As these devices continue to shrink, their microscale dimensions allow them to be unobtrusive and economical, with the potential to operate from typically unreachable environments and, in wireless network applications, deploy numerous distributed sensing nodes simultaneously. Extended operational life, however, is difficult to achieve since their limited volume space constrains the stored energy available, even with state-of-the-art technologies, such as thin-film lithium-ion batteries (Li Ion) and micro-fuel cells. Harvesting ambient energy overcomes this deficit by continually replenishing the energy reservoir and, as a result, indefinitely extending system lifetime. In this work, an electrostatic harvester that harnesses ambient kinetic energy from vibrations to charge an energy-storage device (e.g., a battery) is investigated, developed, and evaluated. The proposed harvester charges and holds the voltage across a vibration-sensitive variable capacitor so that vibrations can induce it to generate current into the battery when capacitance decreases (as its plates separate). The challenge is that energy is harnessed at relatively slow rates, producing low output power, and the electronics required to transfer it to charge a battery can easily demand more than the power produced. To this end, the system reduces losses by time-managing and biasing its circuits to operate only when needed and with just enough energy while charging the capacitor through an efficient quasi-lossless inductor-based precharger. As result, the proposed energyharvester stores a net energy gain in the battery during every vibration cycle. Two energy-harvesting integrated circuits (IC) were analyzed, designed, developed, and validated using a 0.7-im BiCMOS process and a 30-Hz

This review presents the state of the art of the application of energyharvesting in commercial and residential buildings. Electromagnetic (optical and radio frequency), kinetic, thermal and airflow-based energy sources are identified as potential energy sources within buildings and the available energy is measured in a range of buildings. Suitable energyharvesters are discussed and the available and the potential harvestedenergy calculated. Calculations based on these measurements, and the technical specifications of state-of-the-art harvesters, show that typical harvested powers are: (1) indoor solar cell (active area of 9 cm2, volume of 2.88 cm3): ˜300 µW from a light intensity of 1000 lx; (2) thermoelectric harvester (volume of 1.4 cm3): 6 mW from a thermal gradient of 25 °C (3) periodic kinetic energyharvester (volume of 0.15 cm3): 2 µW from a vibration acceleration of 0.25 m s-2 at 45 Hz (4) electromagnetic wave harvester (13 cm antenna length and conversion efficiency of 0.7): 1 µW with an RF source power of -25 dBm; and (5) airflow harvester (wind turbine blade of 6 cm diameter and generator efficiency of 0.41): 140 mW from an airflow of 8 m s-1. These results highlight the high potential of energyharvesting technology in buildings and the relative attractions of various harvester technologies. The harvested power could either be used to replace batteries or to prolong the life of rechargeable batteries for low-power (˜1 mW) electronic devices.

The batteries of the current pacing devices are relatively large and occupy over 60 percent of the size of pulse generators. Therefore, they cannot be placed in the subtle areas of human body. In this paper, the mastication force and the resulting tooth pressure are converted to electricity. The pressure energy can be converted to electricity by using the piezoelectric effect. The tooth crown is used as a power autonomous pulse generator. We refer to this envisioned pulse generator as the smart tooth. The smart tooth is in the form of a dental implant. A piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvester is designed and modeled for this purpose. The Piezoelectric based energyharvesters investigated and analyzed in this paper initially includes a single degree of freedom piezoelectric based stack energyharvester which utilizes a harvesting circuit employing the case of a purely resistive circuit. The next step is utilizing and investigating a bimorph piezoelectric beam which is integrated/embedded in the smart tooth implant. Mastication process causes the bimorph beam to buckle or return to unbuckled condition. The transitions results in vibration of the piezoelectric beam and thus generate energy. The power estimated by the two mechanisms is in the order of hundreds of microwatts. Both scenarios of the energyharvesters are analytically modeled. The exact analytical solution of the piezoelectric beam energyharvester with Euler-Bernoulli beam assumptions is presented. The electro-mechanical coupling and the geometric nonlinearities have been included in the model for the piezoelectric beam.

We examine the electrical response of electromagnetic device working both in the linear and nonlinear domain. The harvester is consisted of small magnet moving in isolating tube surrounded by the coil attached to the electrical circuit. In the nonlinear case the magnet vibrates in between two fixed magnets attached to the both ends of the tube. Additionally we use two springs which limit the movement of the small magnet. The linear case is when the moving magnet is attached to the repelling springs, and the static magnets have been replaced by the non-magnetic material. The potentials and forces were calculated using both the analytical expressions and the finite elements method. We compare the results for energyharvesting obtained in these two cases. The generated output power in the linear case reaches the peak value 80 mW near the resonance frequency ω0 for maximum base acceleration considered by us, whereas in the non-linear case the corresponding outpot power has the peak value 95 mW and additionally relatively high values in the excitation frequencies range up to ω = 1.2ω0. The numerical results also show that the power efficiency in the nonlinear case exceeds the corresponding efficiency in the linear case at relatively high values of base accelerations greater than 5 g. The results show the increase of harvestedenergy in the broad band of excitation frequencies in the nonlinear case.

The paper demonstrates an energyharvester using a freestanding piezoelectric diaphragm combined with a proof mass. The diaphragm bearing double-sided spiral electrodes makes use of the d33 piezoelectric effect to realize energy scavenging. The harvester was fabricated by using a MEMS technique. The energy converting performance of the diaphragm was characterized by a shaker system. Proof masses were combined at the center of the diaphragm to tune the resonance of the harvester for the sake of scavenging low frequency vibrationalenergy. A receptance model was built to explain the vibrational behavior of the combined system. The resonance tuning and energyharvesting performance of the combination system was experimentally verified.

This study presents a nonlinear piezoelectric energyharvester with intent to scavenge energy from diverse mechanical motions. The harvester consists of four piezoelectric cantilever beams, a cylindrical track, and a ferromagnetic ball, with magnets integrated to introduce the magnetic coupling between the ball and the beams. The experimental results demonstrate that the harvester is able to collect energy from various directions of vibrations. For the vibrations perpendicular to the ground, the maximum peak voltage is increased by 3.2 V and the bandwidth of the voltage above 4 V is increased by more than 4 Hz compared to the results obtained when using a conventional design. For the vibrations along the horizontal direction, the frequency up-conversion is realized through the magnetic coupling. Moreover, the proposed design can harvestenergy from the sway motion around different directions on the horizontal plane. Harvestingenergy from the rotation motion is also achieved with an operating bandwidth of approximately 6 Hz.

Innovations in energyharvesting have seen a quantum leap in the last decade. With the introduction of low energy devices in the market, micro energyharvesting units are being explored with much vigor. One of the recent areas of micro energy scavenging is the exploitation of existing vibrationalenergy and the use of various mechanical motions for the same, useful for low power consumption devices. Ferrofluids are liquids containing magnetic materials having nano-scale permanent magnetic dipoles. The present work explores the possibility of the use of this property for generation of electricity. Since the power generation is through a liquid material, it can take any shape as well as response to small acceleration levels. In this work, an electromagnet-based micropower generator is proposed to utilize the sloshing of the ferrofluid within a controlled chamber which moves to different low frequencies. As compared to permanent magnet units researched previously, ferrofluids can be placed in the smallest of containers of different shapes, thereby giving an output in response to the slightest change in motion. Mechanical motion from 1- 20 Hz was able to give an output voltage in mV's. In this paper, the efficiency and feasibility of such a system is demonstrated.

Thermoacoustics exploit a temperature gradient to produce powerful acoustic pressure waves. The technology has a key role to play in energyharvesting systems. A time-line in the development of thermoacoustics is presented from its earliest recorded example in glass blowing through to the development of the Sondhauss and Rijke tubes to Stirling engines and pulse-tube cryo-cooling. The review sets the current literature in context, identifies key publications and promising areas of research. The fundamental principles of thermoacoustic phenomena are explained; design challenges and factors influencing efficiency are explored. Thermoacoustic processes involve complex multi-physical coupling and transient, highly non-linear relationships which are computationally expensive to model; appropriate numerical modelling techniques and options for analyses are presented. Potential methods of harvesting the energy in the acoustic waves are also examined.

PVDF is a very important piezoelectric polymer material which has a promising range of applications in a variety of fields such as acoustic sensors and transducers, electrical switches, medical instrumentation, artificial sensitive skin in robotics, automotive detection on roads, nondestructive testing, structural health monitoring and as a biocampatible material. In this research cantilever based multi energyharvester was developed to maximize the power output of PVDF sensor. Nano mixture containing ferrofluid (FF) and ZnO nano particles were used to enhance the piezoelectric output of the sensor. The samples were tested under different energy conditions to observe the behavior of nano coated PVDF film under multi energy conditions. Composition of the ZnO and FF nano particles were changed by weight, in order to achieve the optimal composition of the nano mixture. Light energy, vibrationenergy, combined effect of light and vibrationenergy, and magnetic effect were used to explore the behavior of the sensor. The sensor with 60% ZnO and 40% FF achieved a maximum power output of 10.7 microwatts when it is under the combined effect of light and vibrationenergy. Which is nearly 16 times more power output than PVDF sensor. When the magnetic effect is considered the sensor with 100% FF showed the highest power output of 11.2 microwatts which is nearly 17 times more power output than pure PVDF. The effective piezoelctric volume of the sensor was 0.017 cm3. In order to explore the effect of magnetic flux, cone patterns were created on the sensor by means of a external magnetic field. Stability of the cones generated on the sensor played a major role in generated power output.

This paper presents experiments and models of a passive self-tuning energyharvester for rotational vibration applications. Tensile stress due to centrifugal force in a radially oriented piezoelectric cantilever beam passively tunes the resonant frequency so that the harvester remains at or near its resonant frequency. Because centrifugal force is proportional to the square of driving frequency, the resonant frequency of an optimized harvester can track and match the driving frequency over a wide frequency range. An analytical model is presented to explain the harvester's operation, advantages, and design parameter selection. A prototype demonstrated significantly improved performance compared with an untuned harvester.

The challenge of variable vibration frequencies for energyharvesting calls for the development of wideband energyharvesters. Bistability has been proven to be a potential solution. Optimization of the energy extraction is another important objective for energyharvesting. Nonlinear synchronized switching techniques have demonstrated some of the best performances. This paper presents a novel energyharvesting solution which combines these two techniques: the OSECE (optimized synchronous electric charge extraction) technique is used along with a BSM (buckled-spring-mass) bistable generator to achieve wideband energyharvesting. The effect of the electromechanical coupling coefficient on the harvested power for the bistable harvester with the nonlinear energy extraction technique is discussed for the first time. The performances of the proposed solution for different levels of electromechanical coupling coefficients in the cases of chirp and noise excitations are compared against the performances of the bistable harvester with the standard technique. It is shown that the OSECE technique is a much better option for wideband energyharvesting than the standard circuit. Moreover, the harvestedenergy is drastically increased for all excitations in the case of low electromechanical coupling coefficients. When the electromechanical coupling coefficient is high, the performance of the OSECE technique is not as good as the standard circuit for forward sweeps, but superior for the reverse sweep and band-limited noise cases. However, considering that real excitation signals are more similar to noise signals, the OSECE technique enhances the performance.

The World Health Organization has established recommendations for blood pressure measurement devices for use in low-resource venues, setting the "triple A" expectations of Accuracy, Affordability, and Availability. Because of issues related to training and assessment of proficiency, the pendulum has swung away from manual blood pressure devices and auscultatory techniques towards automatic oscillometric devices. As a result of power challenges in the developing world, there has also been a push towards semiautomatic devices that are not dependent on external power sources or batteries. Beyond solar solutions, disruptive technology related to solid-state vibrationalenergyharvesting may be the next iterative solution to attain the ultimate goal of a self-powered low-cost validated device that is simple to use and reliable. PMID:25913774

Lead-free Mn-doped (K0.5, Na0.5)NbO3 (KNN) thin films were fabricated by the chemical solution deposition method. The addition of small concentration of Mn dopant effectively reduced the leakage current density and enhanced the piezoelectric properties of the films. The leakage current density of 0.5 mol. % Mn-doped KNN film showed the lowest value of ˜10-7 A/cm2 at 10 V compared to the films with other doping concentrations and the piezoelectric d33 and e31 coefficients of this film were ˜90 pm/V and -8.5 C/m2, respectively. The maximum power and power density of the lead-free thin film-based vibrationalenergyharvesting device were 3.62 μW and 1800 μW/cm3 at the resonance frequency of 132 Hz and the acceleration of 1.0 G. The results prove that the 0.5 mol. % Mn-doped KNN film is an attractive candidate transducer layer for the piezoelectric MEMS energyharvesting device applications with a small volume and a long-lasting power source.

Piezoelectric-based vibrationenergyharvesting is of interest in a wide range of applications, and a number of harvesting schemes have been proposed and studied { primarily when operating under steady state conditions. However, energyharvesting behavior is rarely studied in systems with transient excitations. This paper will work to develop an understanding of this behavior within the context of a particular vibration reduction technique, resonance frequency detuning. Resonance frequency detuning provides a method of reducing mechanical response at structural resonances as the excitation frequency sweeps through a given range. This technique relies on switching the stiffness state of a structure at optimal times to detune its resonance frequency from that of the excitation. This paper examines how this optimal switch may be triggered in terms of the energyharvested, developing a normalized optimal switch energy that is independent of the open- and short-circuit resistances. Here the open- and short-circuit shunt resistances refer to imposed conditions that approximate the open- and short-circuit conditions, via high and low resistance shunts. These conditions are practically necessary to harvest the small amounts of power needed to switch stiffness states, as open-circuit and closed-circuit refer to infinite resistance and zero resistance, respectively, and therefore no energy passes through the harvesting circuit. The limiting stiffness states are then defined by these open- and short-circuit resistances. The optimal switch energy is studied over a range of sweep rates, damping ratios, and coupling coefficients; it is found to increase with the coupling coefficient and decrease as the sweep rate and damping ratio increase, behavior which is intuitive. Higher coupling means more energy is converted by the piezoelectric material, and therefore more energy is harvested in a given time; an increased sweep rate means resonance is reached sooner, and there will less

In this study, an electromagnetic energyharvester using a bulk micromachined silicon spiral spring and a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) packaging technique was fabricated and characterized to generate electrical energy from ultra-low ambient vibrations under at vibration accelerations 0.3g. The proposed energyharvester was comprised of a highly-miniaturized neodymium-ironboron (NdFeB) magnet, a silicon spiral spring, a multi-turn copper coil, and a PDMS housing in order to improve its electrical output power and reduce its size/volume. When an external vibration directly moves the mounted magnet as a seismic mass at the center of the spiral spring, the mechanical energy of the moving mass was transformed into electrical energy through the 183 turns of the solenoid copper coil. Silicon spiral springs were used to generate a high electrical output power by maximizing the deflection of the movable mass in response to low-level vibrations. The fabricated energyharvester exhibited a resonant frequency of 36 Hz and an optimal load resistance of 99 Ω. It generated an output power of 29.02 µW and load voltage of 107.3 mV at a vibration acceleration of 0.3g. It also exhibited a power density and normalized power density of 48.37 µW·cm-3 and 537.41 µW·cm-3·g-2, respectively. The total volume of the fabricated energyharvester was 1 cm × 1 cm × 0.6 cm (height).

The objective of this work was to demonstrate smart wireless sensing nodes capable of operation at extremely low power levels. These systems were designed to be compatible with energyharvesting systems using piezoelectric materials and/or solar cells. The wireless sensing nodes included a microprocessor, on-board memory, sensing means (1000 ohm foil strain gauge), sensor signal conditioning, 2.4 GHz IEEE 802.15.4 radio transceiver, and rechargeable battery. Extremely low power consumption sleep currents combined with periodic, timed wake-up was used to minimize the average power consumption. Furthermore, we deployed pulsed sensor excitation and microprocessor power control of the signal conditioning elements to minimize the sensors" average contribution to power draw. By sleeping in between samples, we were able to demonstrate extremely low average power consumption. At 10 Hz, current consumption was 300 microamps at 3 VDC (900 microwatts); at 5 Hz: 400 microwatts, at 1 Hz: 90 microwatts. When the RF stage was not used, but data were logged to memory, consumption was further reduced. Piezoelectric strain energyharvesting systems delivered ~2000 microwatts under low level vibration conditions. Output power levels were also measured from two miniature solar cells; which provided a wide range of output power (~100 to 1400 microwatts), depending on the light type & distance from the source. In summary, system power consumption may be reduced by: 1) removing the load from the energyharvesting & storage elements while charging, 2) by using sleep modes in between samples, 3) pulsing excitation to the sensing and signal conditioning elements in between samples, and 4) by recording and/or averaging, rather than frequently transmitting, sensor data.

Electromechanical devices that generate an electrical signal in response to an external source of mechanical vibrations can operate as a sensor of vibrations and as an energyharvester for converting mechanical vibration to electrical energy. The devices incorporate a magnet that is movable through a gap in a ferromagnetic circuit, wherein a coil is wound around a portion of the ferromagnetic circuit. A flexible coupling is used to attach the magnet to a frame for providing alignment of the magnet as it moves or oscillates through the gap in the ferromagnetic circuit. The motion of the magnet can be constrained to occur within a substantially linear range of magnetostatic force that develops due to the motion of the magnet. The devices can have ferromagnetic circuits with multiple arms, an array of magnets having alternating polarity and, encompass micro-electromechanical (MEM) devices.

The purpose of energyharvesting is to provide long term alternatives to replaceable batteries across a number of applications. Piezoelectric vibrationharvesting provides advantages over other transduction methods due to the ability to generate large voltages even on a small scale. However, the operation in energyharvesting is different from typical sensors or actuators. The applied stress is often at the material limit in order to generate the maximum power output. Under these conditions, the degradation of the materials becomes an important factor for long term deployment. In this work bimorph piezoelectric beams were sub jected to lifetime testing through electromagnetic tip actuation for a large number of cycles. The results of two measurement series at different amplitudes are discussed. The dominant effect observed was a shift in mechanical resonance frequencies of the beams which could be very detrimental to resonant harvesters.

In this article, we propose an easy but quite effective method to significantly enhance the power generation capability of an aeroelastic energyharvester. The method is to attach a beam stiffener to the substrate of the harvester, which works as an electromechanical coupling magnifier. It is shown to be effective for all three considered types of harvesters based on galloping, vortex-induced vibration and flutter, leading to a superior performance over the conventional designs without the beam stiffener, with dozens of times the increase in power and an almost 100% increase in the power extraction efficiency yet with comparable or even smaller transverse displacement. Choice guidelines of optimal types of energyharvesters are also suggested based on the given wind situations where the electronic device is located.

In an effort to eliminate the replacement of the batteries of electronic devices that are difficult or impractical to service once deployed, harvestingenergy from mechanical vibrations or impacts using piezoelectric materials has been researched over the last several decades. However, a majority of these applications have very low input frequencies. This presents a challenge for the researchers to optimize the energy output of piezoelectric energyharvesters, due to the relatively high elastic moduli of piezoelectric materials used to date. This paper reviews the current state of research on piezoelectric energyharvesting devices for low frequency (0–100 Hz) applications and the methods that have been developed to improve the power outputs of the piezoelectric energyharvesters. Various key aspects that contribute to the overall performance of a piezoelectric energyharvester are discussed, including geometries of the piezoelectric element, types of piezoelectric material used, techniques employed to match the resonance frequency of the piezoelectric element to input frequency of the host structure, and electronic circuits specifically designed for energyharvesters.

Recent research into damage detection methodologies, embedded sensors, wireless data transmission and energyharvesting in aerospace environments has meant that autonomous structural health monitoring (SHM) systems are becoming a real possibility. The most promising system would utilise wireless sensor nodes that are able to make decisions on damage and communicate this wirelessly to a central base station. Although such a system shows great potential and both passive and active monitoring techniques exist for detecting damage in structures, powering such wireless sensors nodes poses a problem. Two such energy sources that could be harvested in abundance on an aircraft are vibration and thermal gradients. Piezoelectric transducers mounted to the surface of a structure can be utilised to generate power from a dynamic strain whilst thermoelectric generators (TEG) can be used to generate power from thermal gradients. This paper reports on the viability of these two energy sources for powering a wireless SHM system from vibrations ranging from 20 to 400Hz and thermal gradients up to 50°C. Investigations showed that using a single vibrationalenergyharvester raw power levels of up to 1mW could be generated. Further numerical modelling demonstrated that by optimising the position and orientation of the vibrationalharvester greater levels of power could be achieved. However using commercial TEGs average power levels over a flight period between 5 to 30mW could be generated. Both of these energyharvesting techniques show a great potential in powering current wireless SHM systems where depending on the complexity the power requirements range from 1 to 180mW.

An enhanced stability characterization for aeroelastic energyharvesters is introduced by using both the normal form of the Hopf bifurcation and shooting method. Considering a triangular cylinder subjected to transverse galloping oscillations and a piezoelectric transducer to convert mechanical vibrations to electrical power, it is demonstrated that the nonlinear normal form is very beneficial to characterize the type of instability near bifurcation and determine the influence of structural and/or aerodynamic nonlinearities on the performance of the harvester. It is also shown that this tool is strong in terms of designing reliable aeroelastic energyharvesters. The results show that this technique can accurately predict the harvester's response only near bifurcation, however, cannot predict the stable solutions of the harvester when subcritical Hopf bifurcation takes place. To cover these drawbacks, the shooting method is employed. It turns out that this approach is beneficial in determining the stable and unstable solutions of the system and associated turning points. The results also show that the Floquet multipliers, obtained as the by-product of this method, can be used to characterize the response's type of the harvester. Thus, the normal form of the Hopf bifurcation and shooting method predictions can supplement each other to design stable and reliable aeroelastic energyharvesters.

Over the last decade, cantilever energyharvesters gained immense popularity owing to the simplicity of the design and piezoelectric energyharvesting (PEH) using the cantilever design has undergone considerable evolution. The major drawback of a vibrating cantilever beam is its vulnerability to fatigue over a period of time. This article brings forth an experimental investigation into the phenomenon of fatigue of a PEH cantilever beam. As there has been very little literature reported in this area, an effort has been made to scrutinize the damage due to fatigue in a linear vibrating cantilever PEH beam consisting of an aluminum substrate with a piezoelectric macro-fiber composite (MFC) patch attached near the root of the beam and a tip mass attached to the beam. The beam was subjected to transverse vibrations and the behavior of the open circuit voltage was recorded with passing time. Moreover, electro-mechanical admittance readings were obtained periodically using the same MFC patch as a Structural health monitoring (SHM) sensor to assess the health of the PEH beam. The results show that with passing time the PEH beam underwent fatigue in both the substrate and MFC, which is observed in a complimentary trend in the voltage and admittance readings. The claim is further supported using the variation of root mean square deviation (RMSD) of the real part of admittance (conductance) readings. Thus, this study concludes that the fatigue issue should be addressed in the design of PEH for long term vibrationenergyharvesting.

We consider piezoelectric flow energyharvesting in an internal flow environment with the ultimate goal powering systems such as sensors in deep oil well applications. Fluid motion is coupled to structural vibration via a cantilever beam placed in a converging-diverging flow channel. Two designs were considered for the electromechanical coupling: first; the cantilever itself is a piezoelectric bimorph; second; the cantilever is mounted on a pair of flextensional actuators. We experimentally investigated varying the geometry of the flow passage and the flow rate. Experimental results revealed that the power generated from both designs was similar; producing as much as 20 mW at a flow rate of 20 L/min. The bimorph designs were prone to failure at the extremes of flow rates tested. Finite element analysis (FEA) showed fatigue failure was imminent due to stress concentrations near the bimorph's clamped region; and that robustness could be improved with a stepped-joint mounting design. A similar FEA model showed the flextensional-based harvester had a resonant frequency of around 375 Hz and an electromechanical coupling of 0.23 between the cantilever and flextensional actuators in a vacuum. These values; along with the power levels demonstrated; are significant steps toward building a system design that can eventually deliver power in the Watts range to devices down within a well. PMID:26473879

We consider piezoelectric flow energyharvesting in an internal flow environment with the ultimate goal powering systems such as sensors in deep oil well applications. Fluid motion is coupled to structural vibration via a cantilever beam placed in a converging-diverging flow channel. Two designs were considered for the electromechanical coupling: first; the cantilever itself is a piezoelectric bimorph; second; the cantilever is mounted on a pair of flextensional actuators. We experimentally investigated varying the geometry of the flow passage and the flow rate. Experimental results revealed that the power generated from both designs was similar; producing as much as 20 mW at a flow rate of 20 L/min. The bimorph designs were prone to failure at the extremes of flow rates tested. Finite element analysis (FEA) showed fatigue failure was imminent due to stress concentrations near the bimorph’s clamped region; and that robustness could be improved with a stepped-joint mounting design. A similar FEA model showed the flextensional-based harvester had a resonant frequency of around 375 Hz and an electromechanical coupling of 0.23 between the cantilever and flextensional actuators in a vacuum. These values; along with the power levels demonstrated; are significant steps toward building a system design that can eventually deliver power in the Watts range to devices down within a well. PMID:26473879

An alternative switching technique for piezoelectric energyharvesting is presented. The energyharvester based on piezoelectric elements is a promising method to scavenge ambient energy. Several non-linear techniques such as SSHI have been implemented to improve the global harvestedenergy. However, these techniques are sensitive to load and should be tuned to obtain optimal power output. This technique, called Series Synchronized Switch Harvesting (S3H), has both the advantage of easy implementation and independence of the harvested power with the load impedance. The harvesting circuit simply consists of a switch in series with the piezoelement and the load. The switch is nearly always open and is triggered-on each time the piezoelectric voltage reaches an extremum. It is opened back after an arbitrary on-time t0. The energy scavenging process happens when switch is closed. Based on linear motion assumption, the harvester structure is modeled as a "Mass-Spring-Damper" system. The analysis of S3H technique is considered with harmonic excitation. An analytical model of S3H is presented and discussed. The main advantage of this approach compared with the usual standard technique is that the extracted power is independent of the load within a wide range of load impedance, and that the useful impedance range is simply related to the defined switch on-time. For constant displacement excitation condition, the optimal power output is more than twice the power extracted by the standard technique as long as the on-time interval is small comparatively with the vibration period. For constant force excitation, an optimal on-time can be defined resulting in an optimally wide load bandwidth. Keywords: piezoelectric; energyharvesting; non-linear harvesting techniques; switching techniques.

We report a magnetoelectric energyharvester structure that can simultaneously scavenge magnetic and vibrationenergy in the absence of DC magnetic field. The structure consisted of a piezoelectric macro-fiber composite bonded to a Ni cantilever. Large magnetoelectric coefficient ˜50 V/cm Oe and power density ˜4.5 mW/cm3 (1 g acceleration) were observed at the resonance frequency. An additive effect was realized when the harvester operated under dual-phase mode. The increase in voltage output at the first three resonance frequencies under dual-phase mode was found to be 2.4%, 35.5%, and 360.7%. These results present significant advancement toward high energy density multimode energyharvesting system.

This is the final report of a three-year, Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Nature uses chlorophyll and other porphyrinic pigments to capture and transfer light energy as a preliminary step in photosynthesis. The design of synthetic assemblies of light harvesting and energy directing pigments has been explored through synthesis and characterization of porphyrin oligomers. In this project, pigment electronic and vibrational structures have been explored by electrochemistry and dynamic and static optical measurements. Transient absorption data reveal energy transfer between pigments with lifetimes on the order of 20--200 picoseconds, while Raman data reveal that the basic porphyrin core structure is unperturbed relative to the individual monomer units. These two findings, along with an extensive series of experiments on the oxidized oligomers, reveal that coupling between the pigments is fundamentally weak, but sufficient to allow facile energy transfer as the predominant excited state process. Modeling of the expected quantum yields for energy transfer within a variety of arrays was accomplished, thereby providing a tool to guide synthetic goals.

This paper describes hierarchically architectured development of an energyharvesting (EH) system that consists of micro and/or macro-scale harvesters matched to multiple components of remote wireless sensor and communication nodes. The micro-scale harvesters consist of thin-film MEMS piezoelectric cantilever arrays and power generation modules in IC-like form to allow efficient EH from vibrations. The design uses new high conversion efficiency thin-film processes combined with novel cantilever structures tuned to multiple resonant frequencies as broadband arrays. The macro-scale harvesters are used to power the collector nodes that have higher power specifications. These bulk harvesters can be integrated with efficient adaptive power management circuits that match transducer impedance and maximize power harvested from multiple scavenging sources with very low intrinsic power consumption. Texas MicroPower, Inc. is developing process based on a composition that has the highest reported energy density as compared to other commercially available bulk PZT-based sensor/actuator ceramic materials and extending it to thin-film materials and miniature conversion transducer structures. The multiform factor harvesters can be deployed for several military and commercial applications such as underground unattended sensors, sensors in oil rigs, structural health monitoring, supply chain management, and battlefield applications such as sensors on soldier apparel, equipment, and wearable electronics.

Nonlinear bistable systems have proven to be advantageous for energyharvesting of random and real ambient vibrations. One simple way of implementing a bistable transducer is setting a piezoelectric beam in a post-buckled configuration by axial compression. Besides, hinged or clamped-clamped type of boundary conditions correspond to two different post-buckled shape functions. Here we study, through theoretical analysis and numerical simulations, the efficiency of a hinged and clamped-clamped piezoelectric bridge under band-limited random noise with progressive axial load. Clamped configuration results to harvest 26% more power than hinged around an optimal axial load of 0.05%, while, in the intra-well trapped situation, above 0.1%, the two configurations present no substantial difference. Nevertheless, simulations confirm the advantage of exploiting inter-well oscillations in bistable regime.

A piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvester is presented that can generate electricity from the weight of passing cars or crowds. The energyharvester consists of a piezoelectric beam, which buckles when the device is stepped on. The energyharvester can have a horizontal or vertical configuration. In the vertical (direct) configuration, the piezoelectric beam is vertical and directly sustains the weight of the vehicles or people. In the horizontal (indirect) configuration, the vertical weight is transferred to a horizontal axial force through a scissor-like mechanism. Buckling of the beam results in significant stresses and, thus, large power production. However, if the beam’s buckling is not controlled, the beam will fracture. To prevent this, the axial deformation is constrained to limit the deformations of the beam. In this paper, the energyharvester is analytically modeled. The considered piezoelectric beam is a general non-uniform beam. The natural frequencies, mode shapes, and the critical buckling force corresponding to each mode shape are calculated. The electro-mechanical coupling and the geometric nonlinearities are included in the model. The design criteria for the device are discussed. It is demonstrated that a device, realized with commonly used piezoelectric patches, can generate tens of milliwatts of power from passing car traffic. The proposed device could also be implemented in the sidewalks or integrated in shoe soles for energy generation. One of the key features of the device is its frequency up-conversion characteristics. The piezoelectric beam undergoes free vibrations each time the weight is applied to or removed from the energyharvester. The frequency of the free vibrations is orders of magnitude larger than the frequency of the load. The device is, thus, both efficient and insensitive to the frequency of the force excitations.

Power harvesting techniques that convert vibrationenergy into electrical energy through piezoelectric transducers show strong potential for powering smart wireless sensor devices in applications of structural health monitoring. This paper presents an analytical model of the dynamic behavior of an electromechanical piezoelectric bimorph cantilever harvester connected with an AC-DC circuit based on the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and Hamiltonian theorem. A new cantilevered piezoelectric bimorph structure is proposed in which the plug-type connection between support layer and tip-mass ensures that the gravity center of the tip-mass is collinear with the gravity center of the beam so that the brittle fracture of piezoelectric layers can also be avoided while vibrating with large amplitude. The tip-mass is equated by the inertial force and inertial moment acting at the end of the piezoelectric bimorph beam based on D'Alembert's principle. An AC-DC converting circuit soldered with the piezoelectric elements is also taken into account. A completely new analytic expression of the global behavior of the electromechanical piezoelectric bimorph harvesting system with AC-DC circuit under input base transverse excitation is derived. Moreover, an experimental energyharvester is fabricated and the theoretical analysis and experimental results of the piezoelectric harvester under the input base transverse displacement excitation are validated by using measurements of the absolute tip displacement, electric voltage response, electric current response and electric power harvesting.

Bistable systems have recently been employed for vibrationenergyharvesting owing to their favorable dynamic characteristics and desirable response for wideband excitation. In this paper, we investigate the use of bistable harvesters to extract energy from spinning wheels. The proposed harvester consists of a piezoelectric cantilever beam that is mounted on a rigid spinning hub and carries a tip mass in the form of a permanent magnet. Magnetic repulsion forces from an opposite magnet cause the beam to possess two stable equilibrium positions. Inter-well lead-lag oscillations caused by rotation in a vertical plane provide a good source for energy extraction. The design offers frequency tuning, as the centrifugal forces strain the harvester, thereby increasing its natural frequency to cope with a variable rotational speed. This has applications in self-powered sensors mounted on spinning wheels, such as tire pressure monitoring sensors. An effort is made to select the design parameters to enable the harvester to exhibit favorable inter-well oscillations across a range of rotational speeds for enhanced energyharvesting. Findings of the present work are verified both numerically and experimentally.

Energy transfer between chromophores in photosynthesis proceeds with near-unity quantum efficiency. Understanding the precise mechanisms of these processes is made difficult by the complexity of the electronic structure and interactions with different vibrational modes. Two-dimensional spectroscopy has helped resolve some of the ambiguities and identified quantum effects that may be important for highly efficient energy transfer. Many questions remain, however, including whether the coherences observed are electronic and/or vibrational in nature and what role they play. We utilize a two-color, four-wave mixing experiment with control of the wavelength and polarization to selectively excite specific coherence pathways. For the light-harvesting complex PC645, from cryptophyte algae, we reveal and identify specific contributions from both electronic and vibrational coherences and determine an excited-state structure based on two strongly coupled electronic states and two vibrational modes. Separation of the coherence pathways also uncovers the complex evolution of these coherences and the states involved. PMID:26276179

Hydraulic dampers are widely used to dissipate energy during vibration damping. In this paper, an energy-harvesting hydraulic damper is proposed for collecting energy while simultaneously damping vibration. Under vibratory excitation, the flow of hydraulic oil inside the cylinder of the damper is converted into amplified rotation via a hydraulic motor, whose output shaft is connected to an electromagnetic generator capable of harvesting a large amount of energy. In this way, the vibration is damped by both oil viscosity and the operation of an electrical mechanism. An electromechanical model is presented to illustrate both the electrical and mechanical responses of the system. A three-stage identification approach is introduced to facilitate the model parameter identification using cycle-loading experiments. A prototype device is developed and characterized in a test rig. The maximum power harvested during the experiments was 435.1 W (m s-1)-1, using a predefined harmonic excitation with an amplitude of 0.02 m, a frequency of 0.8 Hz, and an optimal resistance of 2 Ω. Comparison of the experimental and computational results confirmed the effectiveness of both the electromechanical model and the three-stage identification approach in realizing the proposed design.

This study reports a tire-attached energyharvester, in which a cantilever beam pasted piezoelectric film and magnets with the same polarity are fabricated as a bistable vibrating system, for low-speed actual-vehicle driving. As the wheel rotates, the energyharvester is subjected to the noise produced from the interaction between the paved road and the rotating tire, and tangentially gravitational force as a periodic input can be applied to achieve the occurrence of stochastic resonance. Stochastic resonance can significantly stimulate the response of the bistable vibrating system, and therefore enhance the energyharvesting efficiency.

In this paper we examine the modal response of a bistable electro-mechanical energyharvesting device based on characterization of the experimental time-series. A piezoelectric element attached to a vibrating bistable carbon-fibre reinforced polymer laminate plate was used for the conversion of mechanical vibrations to electrical energy under harmonic excitations at a variety of frequencies and amplitudes. The inherent bistability of the mechanical resonator and snap-through phenomenon between stable states were exploited for energyharvesting. To identify the dynamics of the response of the studied harvesting structure and the associated output power generation we used the Fourier spectrum and Recurrence Quantification Analysis (RQA).

The development of three energy conversion devices that are able to transform vibrations in their surroundings to electrical energy is discussed in this thesis. These energyharvesters are based upon a newly invented architecture called the Parametric Frequency Increased Generator (PFIG). The PFIG structure is designed to efficiently convert low frequency and non-periodic vibrations into electrical power. The three PFIG devices have a combined operating range covering two orders of magnitude in acceleration (0.54--19.6m/s 2) and a frequency range spanning up to 60Hz; making them some of the most versatile generators in existence. The PFIG utilizes a bi-stable mechanical structure to initiate high-frequency mechanical oscillations in an electromechanical scavenger. By up-converting the ambient vibration frequency to a higher internal operation frequency, the PFIG achieves better electromechanical coupling. The fixed internal displacement and dynamics of the PFIG allow it to operate more efficiently than resonant generators when the ambient vibration amplitude is higher than the internal displacement limit of the device. The PFIG structure is capable of efficiently converting mechanical vibrations with variable characteristics including amplitude and frequency, into electrical power. The first electromagnetic harvester can generate a peak power of 163microW and an average power of 13.6microW from an input acceleration of 9.8m/s 2 at 10Hz, and it can operate up to 60Hz. The internal volume of the generator is 2.12cm3 (3.75 including casing). It sets the state-of-the-art in efficiency in the <20Hz range. The volume figure of merit is 0.068%, which is a 10x improvement over other published works. It has a record high bandwidth figure of merit (0.375%). A second piezoelectric implementation generates 3.25microW of average power under the same excitation conditions, while the volume of the generator is halved (1.2cm3). A third PFIG was developed for critical

Piezoelectric materials have a unique ability to interchange electrical and mechanical energy. This property allows the absorption of mechanical energy such as ambient vibration and its transformation into electrical energy. The electrical energy generated can be used to power low-power electronic devices. In the present study, energyharvesting by lead zirconate titanate (PZT) multilayer (ML) stacks and bimorphs is presented. The devices were fabricated by a tape casting technique and were poled at 2 kV/mm for 30 min immersed in a silicone oil bath maintained at 60°C. The energyharvesting characteristics of the fabricated devices were measured in a suitably assembled test setup. The output voltage obtained from the PZT bimorphs and ML stacks was 450 mV and 125 mV, respectively. The higher output voltage from the bimorph is due to its low capacitance.

The desire to reduce power consumption of current integrated circuits has led design engineers to focus on harvestingenergy from free ambient sources such as vibrations. The energyharvested this way can eliminate the need for battery replacement, particularly, in low-energy remote sensing and wireless devices. Currently, most vibration-based energyharvesters are designed as linear resonators, therefore, they have a narrow resonance frequency. The optimal performance of such harvesters is achieved only when their resonance frequency is matched with the ambient excitation. In practice, however, a slight shift of the excitation frequency will cause a dramatic reduction in their performance. In the majority of cases, the ambient vibrations are totally random with their energy distributed over a wide frequency spectrum. Thus, developing techniques to extend the bandwidth of vibration-based energyharvesters has become an important field of research in energyharvesting systems. This thesis first reviews the broadband vibration-based energyharvesting techniques currently known in some detail with regard to their merits and applicability under different circumstances. After that, the design, fabrication, modeling and characterization of three new piezoelectric-based energyharvesting mechanism, built typically for rotary motion applications, is discussed. A step-by-step procedure is followed in order to broaden the bandwidth of such energyharvesters by introducing a coupled spring-mass system attached to a PZT beam undergoing rotary motion. It is shown that the new strategies can indeed give rise to a wide-band frequency response making it possible to fine-tune their dynamical response. The numerical results are shown to be in good agreement with the experimental data as far as the frequency response is concerned.

A hybrid piezoelectric energyharvesting transducer system includes: (a) first and second symmetric, pre-curved piezoelectric elements mounted separately on a frame so that their concave major surfaces are positioned opposite to each other; and (b) a linear piezoelectric element mounted separately on the frame and positioned between the pre-curved piezoelectric elements. The pre-curved piezoelectric elements and the linear piezoelectric element are spaced from one another and communicate with energyharvesting circuitry having contact points on the frame. The hybrid piezoelectric energyharvesting transducer system has a higher electromechanical energy conversion efficiency than any known piezoelectric transducer.

Imitating fish fins and insect wings, flapping foils are usually used for biomimetic propulsion. Theoretical studies and experiments have demonstrated that through specific combinations of heaving and pitching motions, these foils can also extract energy from incoming wind or current. Compared with conventional flow energyharvesting devices based upon rotating turbines, this novel design promises mitigated impact upon the environment. To achieve the required motions, existing studies focus on hydrodynamic mode coupling, in which a periodic pitching motion is activated and a heaving motion is then generated by the oscillating lifting force. Energy extraction is achieved through a damper in the heaving direction (representing the generator). This design involves a complicated control and activation system. In addition, there is always the possibility that the energy required to activate the system exceeds the energy recovered by the generator. We have discovered that a much simpler device without activation, a 2DOF foil mounted on a rotational spring and a damper undergoing flow-induced motions can achieve stable flow energyharvesting. Using Navier-Stokes simulations we predicted different behaviors of the system during flow-induced vibrations and identified the specific requirements to achieve controllable periodic motions essential for stable energyharvesting. The energyharvesting capacity and efficiency were also determined.

Bi-stable piezoelectric energyharvester has been found as a promising structure for vibrationenergyharvesting. This paper presents a high performance and simple structure bi-stable piezoelectric energyharvester based on simply supported piezoelectric buckled beam. The potential energy function is established theoretically, and electrical properties of the device under different axial compressive displacements, excitation frequencies, and accelerations are investigated systematically. Experimental results demonstrate that the output properties and bandwidth of the bi-stable nonlinear energyharvester under harmonic mechanical excitation are improved dramatically compared with the traditional linear energyharvester. The device demonstrates the potential in energyharvesting application to low-power portable electronics and wireless sensor nodes.

Piezoelectric energyharvesting provides a means to harvest the ambient kinetic energy (e.g., vibrations and rotations) of structures for conversion into usable electricity. The technique can be employed to provide power sources for wireless sensors and low-power devices. Most energyharvesting devices developed to date operate most efficiently within a narrow bandwidth because they are resonance-frequency-based designs, although several tunable techniques have been proposed to broaden the efficient frequency range of energyharvesting. However, most efforts have focused on harvestingvibrationenergy rather than rotational energy. This paper presents the results of a comprehensive design analysis and experimental tests of a passive self-tuning piezoelectric composite cantilever beam for harvestingenergy from rotational motion. The piezoelectric beam harvester is mounted on a rotating axis in the radial direction so that the tensile stress induced by the centrifugal force effectively stiffens the beam to passively tune the resonance frequency. A calculation procedure based on a finite element method is developed to analyze the self-frequency-tuning piezoelectric energyharvester, and the results are compared with those obtained from an analytic beam model. The design parameters for the self-tuning characteristics are identified and discussed. Experimental results verify the frequency-tuning energyharvesting behavior and show improved performances for the voltage and power outputs in the bandwidth.

This paper explores the concept of an acoustic black hole (ABH) as a main design framework for performing dynamic structural tailoring of mechanical systems for vibrationenergyharvesting applications. The ABH is an integral feature embedded in the host structure that allows for a smooth reduction of the phase velocity, theoretically approaching zero, while minimizing the reflected energy. This mechanism results in structural areas with high energy density that can be effectively exploited to develop enhanced vibration-based energyharvesting. Fully coupled electro-mechanical models of an ABH tapered structure with surface mounted piezo-transducers are developed to numerically simulate the response of the system to both steady state and transient excitations. The design performances are numerically evaluated using structural intensity data as well as the instantaneous voltage/power and energy output produced by the piezo-transducer network. Results show that the dynamically tailored structural design enables a drastic increase in the harvestedenergy as compared to traditional structures, both under steady state and transient excitation conditions.

In this paper we present the measurement of temperature differences between the ambient air and the body temperature of a sheep (Heidschnucke) and its applicability for thermoelectric energyharvesting from livestock, demonstrated via the test of a specially tailored TEG system in a real-life experiment. In three measurement campaigns average temperature differences were found between 2.5 K and 3.5 K. Analytical models and FEM simulations were carried out to determine the actual thermal resistance of the sheep's fur from comparisons with the temperature measurements. With these data a thermoelectric (TEG) generator was built in a thermally optimized housing with adapted heats sink. The whole TEG system was mounted to a collar, including a data logger for recording temperature and TEG voltage. First measurements at the neck of a sheep were accomplished, with a calculated maximal average power output of 173 μW at the TEG. Taking the necessity of a low-voltage step-up converter into account, an electric output power of 54 μW is available which comes close to the power consumption of a low-power VHF tracking system.

A series of experiments were conducted to investigate and characterize the concept of ferrofluidic induction - a process for generating electrical power via cyclic oscillation of ferrofluid (iron-based nanofluid) through a solenoid. Experimental parameters include: number of bias magnets, magnet spacing, solenoid core, fluid pulse frequency and ferrofluid-particle diameter. A peristaltic pump was used to cyclically drive two aqueous ferrofluids, consisting of 7-10 nm iron-oxide particles and commercially-available hydroxyl-coated magnetic beads (~800 nm), respectively. The solutions were pulsated at 3, 6, and 10 Hz through 3.2 mm internal diameter Tygon tubing. A 1000 turn copper-wire solenoid was placed around the tube 45 cm away from the pump. The experimental results indicate that the ferrofluid is capable of inducing a maximum electric potential of approximately +/- 20 μV across the solenoid during its cyclic passage. As the frequency of the pulsating flow increased, the ferro-nanoparticle diameter increased, or the bias magnet separation decreased, the induced voltage increased. The type of solenoid core material (copper or plastic) did not have a discernible effect on induction. These results demonstrate the feasibility of ferrofluidic induction and provide insight into its dependence on fluid/flow parameters. Such fluidic/magneto-coupling can be exploited for energyharvesting and/or conversion system design for a variety of applications.

In the present experimental work we investigated the performance of fluidic harvesters consisting of cylindrical body mounted of the tip of a flexible beam in the presence of nearly homogeneous and isotropic turbulence. Circular, semi-circular and square shapes have been tested. It was found that turbulence interferes with resonance conditions between the flow and the structure in the case of vortex induced vibrations and has absolutely no effect in flutter dominated case. As a result, turbulence increases the power output of non-linear harvesters subjected to vortex induces vibration and it has no effect in harvester under flutter conditions. Supported by NSF Grant: CBET #1033117.

In this study, we demonstrate the concept of a new hybrid energyharvesting system by combing solar cells with magneto-thermoelectric generator (MTG, i.e., thermal energyharvesting). The silicon solar cell can easily reach high temperature under normal operating conditions. Thus the heated solar cell becomes rapidly less efficient as the temperature of solar cell rises. To increase the efficiency of the solar cell, air or water-based cooling system is used. To surpass conventional cooling devices requiring additional power as well as large working space for air/water collectors, we develop a new technology of pairing an active thermal backplane (ATB) to solar cell. The ATB design is based on MTG technology utilizing the physics of the 2nd order phase transition of active ferromagnetic materials. The MTG is cost-effective conversion of thermal energy to electrical energy and is fundamentally different from Seebeck TEG devices. The ATB (MTG) is in addition to being an energy conversion system, a very good conveyor of heat through both conduction and convection. Therefore, the ATB can provide dual-mode for the proposed hybrid energyharvesting. One is active convective and conductive cooling for heated solar cell. Another is active thermal energyharvesting from heat of solar cell. These novel hybrid energyharvesting device have potentially simultaneous energy conversion capability of solar and thermal energy into electricity. The results presented can be used for better understanding of hybrid energyharvesting system that can be integrated into commercial applications.

Recent work has indicated that linear vibrationalenergyharvesters with an appended degree-of-freedom (DOF) may be advantageous for introducing new dynamic forms to extend the operational bandwidth. Given the additional interest in bistable harvester designs, which exhibit a propitious snap through effect from one stable state to the other, it is a logical extension to explore the influence of an added DOF to a bistable system. However, bistable snap through is not a resonant phenomenon, which tempers the presumption that the dynamics induced by an additional DOF on bistable designs would inherently be beneficial as for linear systems. This paper presents two analytical formulations to assess the fundamental and superharmonic steady-state dynamics of an excited bistable energyharvester to which is attached an auxiliary linear oscillator. From an energyharvesting perspective, the model predicts that the additional linear DOF uniformly amplifies the bistable harvester response magnitude and generated power for excitation frequencies less than the attachment’s resonance while improved power density spans a bandwidth below this frequency. Analyses predict bandwidths having co-existent responses composed of a unique proportion of fundamental and superharmonic dynamics. Experiments validate key analytical predictions and observe the ability for the coupled system to develop an advantageous multi-harmonic interwell response when the initial conditions are insufficient for continuous high-energy orbit at the excitation frequency. Overall, the addition of an auxiliary linear oscillator to a bistable harvester is found to be an effective means of enhancing the energyharvesting performance and robustness.

This paper presents the concept of a flow-induced vibrationenergyharvester based on a one-piece compliant flexure structure. This energyharvester utilizes the aeroelastic flutter phenomenon to convert flow energy to structural vibrationalenergy and to electrical power output through piezoelectric transducers. This flexure creates a discontinuity in the structural stiffness and geometry that can be used to tailor the mode shapes and natural frequencies of the device to the desired operating flow regime while eliminating the need for discrete hinges that are subject to fouling and friction. An approximate representation of the flexure rigidity is developed from the flexure link geometry, and a model of the complete discontinuous structure and integrated flexure is formulated based on the transfer matrix method. The natural frequencies and mode shapes predicted by the model are validated using finite element simulations and are shown to be in close agreement. A proof-of-concept energyharvester incorporating the proposed flexure design has been fabricated and investigated in wind tunnel testing. The aeroelastic modal convergence, critical flutter wind speed, power output and limit cycle behavior of this device is experimentally determined and discussed.

Piezoelectric MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) energyharvesting is an attractive technology for harvesting small magnitudes of energy from ambient vibrations. Increasing the operating frequency bandwidth of such devices is one of the major issues for real world applications. A MEMS-scale doubly clamped nonlinear beam resonator is designed and developed to demonstrate very wide bandwidth and high power density. In this paper a first complete theoretical discussion of nonlinear resonating piezoelectric energyharvesting is provided. The sectional behaviour of the beam is studied through the Classical Lamination Theory (CLT) specifically modified to introduce the piezoelectric coupling and nonlinear Green-Lagrange strain tensor. A lumped parameter model is built through Rayleigh-Ritz Method and the resulting nonlinear coupled equations are solved in the frequency domain through the Harmonic Balance Method (HBM). Finally, the influence of external load resistance on the dynamic behaviour is studied. The theoretical model shows that nonlinear resonant harvesters have much wider power bandwidth than that of linear resonators but their maximum power is still bounded by the mechanical damping as is the case for linear resonating harvesters.

Ultra-low-power (ULP) technology is enabling a wide range of new applications that harvest ambient energy in very small amounts and need little or no maintenance - self-sustaining devices that are capable of perpetual or nearly perpetual operation. These new systems, which are now appearing in industrial and consumer electronics, also promise great changes in medicine and health. Until recently, the idea of micro-scale energyharvesting, and collecting miniscule amounts of ambient energy to power electronic systems, was still limited to research proposals and laboratory experiments.Today an increasing number of systems are appearing that take advantage of light, vibrations and other forms of previously wasted environmental energy for applications where providing line power or maintaining batteries is inconvenient. In the industrial world, where sensors gather information from remote equipment and hazardous processes; in consumer electronics, where mobility and convenience are served; and in medical systems, with unique requirements for prosthetics and non-invasive monitoring, energyharvesting is rapidly expanding into new applications.This paper serves as a survey for applications of energyharvesting for ultra low power technology based on various technical papers available in the public domain.

In this paper, we present experimental investigations using energyharvesting and wireless energy transmission to operate embedded structural health monitoring sensor nodes. The goal of this study is to develop sensing systems that can be permanently embedded within a host structure without the need for an on-board power source. With this approach the required energy will be harvested from the ambient environment, or periodically delivered by a RF energy source to supplement conventional harvesting approaches. This approach combines several transducer types to harvestenergy from multiple sources, providing a more robust solution that does not rely on a single energy source. Both piezoelectric and thermoelectric transducers are considered as energyharvesters to extract the ambient energy commonly available on civil structures such as bridges. Methods of increasing the efficiency, energy storage medium, target applications and the integrated use of energyharvesting sources with wireless energy transmission will be discussed.

Cantilever type piezoelectric harvesters, such as bimorphs, are typically used for vibration induced energyharvesting. However, a major drawback of a piezoelectric bimorph is its brittle nature in harsh environments, precipitating short life-times as well as output power degradation. The emphasis in this work is to design robust, highly efficient piezoelectric harvesters that are capable of generating electrical power in the milliwatt range. Various harvesters were modeled, designed and prototyped, and the flextensional actuator based harvester, where the metal cantilever is mounted and coupled between two flextensional actuators, was found to be a viable alternative to the cantilever type piezoelectric harvesters. Preliminary tests show that these devices equipped with 5x5x36 mm two piezoelectric PZT stacks can produce greater than 50 mW of power under air flow induced vibrations.

This paper investigates a novel mechanism for powering wireless sensors or low power electronics by extracting energy from an ambient fluid flow using a piezoelectric energyharvester driven by aeroelastic flutter vibrations. The energyharvester makes use of a modal convergence flutter instability to generate limit cycle bending oscillations of a cantilevered piezoelectric beam with a small flap connected to its free end by a revolute joint. The critical flow speed at which destabilizing aerodynamic effects cause self-excited vibrations of the structure to emerge is essential to the design of the energyharvester. This value sets the lower bound on the operating wind speed and frequency range of the system. A system of coupled equations that describe the structural, aerodynamic, and electromechanical aspects of the system are used to model the system dynamics. The model uses unsteady aerodynamic modeling to predict the aerodynamic forces and moments acting on the structure and to account for the effects of vortices shed by the flapping wing, while a modal summation technique is used to model the flexible piezoelectric structure. This model is applied to examine the effects on the cut-in wind speed of the system when several design parameters are tuned and the size and mass of the system is held fixed. The effects on the aeroelastic system dynamics and relative sensitivity of the flutter stability boundary are presented and discussed. Experimental wind tunnel results are included to validate the model predictions.

Nowadays, thermal-energy-harvesting is an important research topic for powering wireless sensors. Among numerous thermal-energy-harvesting approaches, some researchers demonstrated novel thermomagnetic-energyharvesters to convert a thermal-energy from an ambient temperature-difference to an electrical-output to power the sensors. However, the harvesters are too bulky to be integrated with the sensors embedded in tiny mechanical-structures for some structuralhealth- monitoring applications. Therefore, miniaturized harvesters are needed. Hence, we demonstrate a miniature thermomagnetic-energyharvester. The harvester consists of CuBe-beams, PZT-piezoelectric-sheet, Gd-soft-magnet, NdFeB-hard-magnet, and mechanical-frame. The piezoelectric-sheet and soft-magnet is bounded at fixed-end and freeend of the beams, respectively. The mechanical-frame assembles the beams and hard-magnet. The length×width×thickness of the harvester is 2.5cm×1.7cm×1.5cm. According to this, our harvester is 20-times smaller than the other harvesters. In the initial-state of the energy-harvesting, the beams' free-end is near the cold-side. Thus, the soft-magnet is cooled lower than its curie temperature (Tc) and consequently changed from paramagnetic to ferromagnetic. Therefore, a magnetic-attractive force is produced between the soft-magnet and hard-magnet. Consequently, the beams/soft-magnet are down-pulled toward the hard-magnet fixed on the hot-side. The soft-magnet closing to the hot-side is heated higher than its Tc and subsequently changed to paramagnetic. Consequently, the magnetic-force is eliminated thus the beams are rebounded to the initial-state. Hence, when the harvester is under a temperature-difference, the beams' pulling-down/back process is cyclic. Due to the piezoelectric effect, the piezoelectric-sheet fixed on the beams continuously produces voltage-response. Under the temperature-difference of 29°C, the voltage-response of the harvester is 30.4 mV with an oscillating

Past few decades were concentrated on researches related to effective energyharvesting applied in modern technologies, MEMS or MOEMS systems. There are many methods for harvestingenergy as, for example, usage of electromagnetic devices, but most dramatic changes were noticed in the usage of piezoelectric materials in small scale devices. Major limitation faced was too small generated power by piezoelectric materials or high resonant frequencies of such smallscale harvesters. In this research, novel composite piezoelectric material was created by mixing PZT powder with 20% solution of polyvinyl butyral in benzyl alcohol. Obtained paste was screen printed on copper foil using 325 mesh stainless steel screen and dried for 30 min at 100 °C. Polyvinyl butyral ensures good adhesion and flexibility of a new material at the conditions that requires strong binding. Five types of a composite piezoelectric material with different concentrations of PZT (40%, 50%, 60%, 70% and 80 %) were produced. As the results showed, these harvesters were able to transform mechanical strain energy into electric potential and, v.v. In experimental setup, electromagnetic shaker was used to excite energyharvester that is fixed in the custom-built clamp, while generated electric potential were registered with USB oscilloscope PICO 3424. The designed devices generate up to 80 μV at 50 Hz excitation. This property can be applied to power microsystem devices or to use them in portable electronics and wireless sensors. However, the main advantage of the created composite piezoelectric material is possibility to apply it on any uniform or nonuniform vibrating surface and to transform low frequency vibrations into electricity.

The concept of harvestingenergy from transverse galloping oscillations of a bluff body with different cross-section geometries is investigated. The energy is harvested by attaching a piezoelectric transducer to the transverse degree of freedom of the body. The power levels that can be generated from these vibrations and the variations of these levels with the load resistance, cross-section geometry, and freestream velocity are determined. A representative model that accounts for the transverse displacement of the bluff body and harvested voltage is presented. The quasi-steady approximation is used to model the aerodynamic loads. A linear analysis is performed to determine the effects of the electrical load resistance and the cross-section geometry on the onset of galloping, which is due to a Hopf bifurcation. The normal form of this bifurcation is derived to determine the type (supercritical or subcritical) of the instability and to characterize the effects of the linear and nonlinear parameters on the level of harvested power near the bifurcation. The results show that the electrical load resistance and the cross-section geometry affect the onset speed of galloping. The results also show that the maximum levels of harvested power are accompanied with minimum transverse displacement amplitudes for all considered (square, D, and triangular) cross-section geometries, which points to the need for performing a coupled analysis of the system.

Previous attempts to harvestenergy from aeroelastic vibrations have been based on attaching a beam to a moving wing or structure. Here, we exploit self-excited oscillations of a fluttering composite beam to harvestenergy using piezoelectric transduction. Details of the beam properties and experimental setup are presented. The effects of preset angle of attack, wind speed, and load resistance on the levels of harvested power are determined. The results point to a complex relation between the aerodynamic loading and its impact on the static deflection and amplitudes of the limit cycle oscillations on one hand and the load resistance and level of power harvested on the other hand.

Previous attempts to harvestenergy from aeroelastic vibrations have been based on attaching a beam to a moving wing or structure. Here, we exploit self-excited oscillations of a fluttering composite beam to harvestenergy using piezoelectric transduction. Details of the beam properties and experimental setup are presented. The effects of preset angle of attack, wind speed, and load resistance on the levels of harvested power are determined. The results point to a complex relation between the aerodynamic loading and its impact on the static deflection and amplitudes of the limit cycle oscillations on one hand and the load resistance and level of power harvested on the other hand.

In this study, experimental characterizations of a new hybrid energyharvesting device consisting of piezoelectric and electromagnetic transducers are presented. The generator, to be worn on the legs or arms of a person, harnesses linear motion and impact forces from human motion to generate electrical energy. The device consists of an unbalanced rotor made of three piezoelectric beams which have permanent magnets attached to the ends. Impact forces cause the beams to vibrate, generating a voltage across their electrodes and linear motion causes the rotor to spin. As the rotor spins, the magnets pass over ten electromagnetic coils mounted to the base, inducing a current through the wire. Several design related issues were investigated experimentally in order to optimize the hybrid device for maximum power generation. Further experiments were conducted on the system to characterize the energyharvesting capabilities of the device, all of which are presented in this study.

Piezoelectric transducers are widely employed in vibration-based energyharvesting schemes. The efficiency of piezoelectric transducers fundamentally hinges upon the electro-mechanical coupling effect. While at the material level such coupling is decided by material property, at the device level it is possible to vary and improve the energy conversion capability between the electrical and mechanical regimes by a variety of means. In this research, a new approach of compensating the effective flexibility of piezoelectric transducers by using non-contact magnetic effect is explored. It is shown that properly configured and positioned magnet arrays can induce approximately linear attraction force that can improve the electro-mechanical coupling of the piezoelectric energyharvester. Analytical and experimental studies are carried out to demonstrate the enhancement.

Blue energy in the form of ocean waves offers an enormous energy resource. However, it has yet to be fully exploited in order to make it available for the use of mankind. Blue energyharvesting is a challenging task as the kinetic energy from ocean waves is irregular in amplitude and is at low frequencies. Though electromagnetic generators (EMGs) are well-known for harvesting mechanical kinetic energies, they have a crucial limitation for blue energy conversion. Indeed, the output voltage of EMGs can be impractically low at the low frequencies of ocean waves. In contrast, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are highly suitable for blue energyharvesting as they can effectively harvest mechanical energies from low frequencies (<1 Hz) to relatively high frequencies (∼kHz) and are also low-cost, lightweight, and easy to fabricate. Several important steps have been taken by Wang's group to develop TENG technology for blue energyharvesting. In this Perspective, we describe some of the recent progress and also address concerns related to durable packaging of TENGs in consideration of harsh marine environments and power management for an efficient power transfer and distribution for commercial applications. PMID:27408982

Harvestingenergy from ambient mechanical vibrations by the piezoelectric effect has been proposed for powering microelectromechanical systems and replacing batteries that have a finite life span. A conventional piezoelectric energyharvester (PEH) is usually designed as a linear resonator, and suffers from a narrow operating bandwidth. To achieve broadband energyharvesting, in this paper we introduce a concept and describe the realization of a novel nonlinear PEH. The proposed PEH consists of a primary piezoelectric cantilever beam coupled to an auxiliary piezoelectric cantilever beam through two movable magnets. For predicting the nonlinear response from the proposed PEH, lumped parameter models are established for the two beams. Both simulation and experiment reveal that for the primary beam, the introduction of magnetic coupling can expand the operating bandwidth as well as improve the output voltage. For the auxiliary beam, the magnitude of the output voltage is slightly reduced, but additional output is observed at off-resonance frequencies. Therefore, broadband energyharvesting can be obtained from both the primary beam and the auxiliary beam.

This paper presents a novel approach for designing broadband piezoelectric harvesters by integrating multiple piezoelectric bimorphs (PBs) with different aspect ratios into a system. The effect of 2 connecting patterns among PBs, in series and in parallel, on improving energyharvesting performance is discussed. It is found for multifrequency spectra ambient vibrations: 1) the operating frequency band (OFB) of a harvesting structure can be widened by connecting multiple PBs with different aspect ratios in series; 2) the OFB of a harvesting structure can be shifted to the dominant frequency domain of the ambient vibrations by increasing or decreasing the number of PBs in parallel. Numerical results show that the OFB of the piezoelectric energyharvesting devices can be tailored by the connection patterns (i.e., in series and in parallel) among PBs. PMID:18986908

Vibration-based energyharvesting using piezoelectric cantilevers has been extensively studied over the past decade. As an alternative to cantilevered harvesters, piezoelectric patch harvesters integrated to thin plates can be more convenient for use in marine, aerospace and automotive applications since these systems are often composed of thin plate-like structures with various boundary conditions. In this paper, we present analytical electroelastic modeling of a piezoelectric energyharvester structurally integrated to a thin plate along with experimental validations. The distributed-parameter electroelastic model of the thin plate with the piezoceramic patch harvester is developed based on Kirchhoff’s plate theory for all-four-edges clamped (CCCC) boundary conditions. Closed-form steady-state response expressions for coupled electrical output and structural vibration are obtained under transverse point force excitation. Analytical electroelastic frequency response functions (FRFs) relating the voltage output and vibration response to force input are derived and generalized for different boundary conditions. Experimental validation and extensive theoretical analysis efforts are then presented with a case study employing a thin PZT-5A piezoceramic patch attached on the surface of a rectangular aluminum CCCC plate. The importance of positioning of the piezoceramic patch harvester is discussed through an analysis of dynamic strain distribution on the overall plate surface. The electroelastic model is validated by a comparison of analytical and experimental FRFs for a wide range of resistive electrical boundary conditions. Finally, power generation performance of the structurally integrated piezoceramic patch harvester from multiple vibration modes is investigated analytically and experimentally.

The emergence of artificially designed sub-wavelength acoustic materials, denoted acoustic metamaterials (AMM), has significantly broadened the range of materials responses found in nature. These engineered materials can indeed manipulate sound/vibration in surprising ways, which include vibration/sound insulation, focusing, cloaking, acoustic energyharvesting …. In this work, we report both on the analysis of the airborne sound transmission loss (STL) through a thin metamaterial plate and on the possibility of acoustic energyharvesting. We first provide a theoretical study of the airborne STL and confronted them to the structure-borne dispersion of a metamaterial plate. Second, we propose to investigate the acoustic energyharvesting capability of the plate-type AMM. We have developed semi-analytical and numerical methods to investigate the STL performances of a plate-type AMM with an airborne sound excitation having different incident angles. The AMM is made of silicone rubber stubs squarely arranged in a thin aluminum plate, and the STL is calculated at low-frequency range [100Hz to 3kHz] for an incoming incident sound pressure wave. The obtained analytical and numerical STL present a very good agreement confirming the reliability of developed approaches. A comparison between computed STL and the band structure of the considered AMM shows an excellent agreement and gives a physical understanding of the observed behavior. On another hand, the acoustic energy confinement in AMM with created defects with suitable geometry was investigated. The first results give a general view for assessing the acoustic energyharvesting performances making use of AMM.

We show that directed energy transport in a linear array of coupled quantum dots can be achieved by a coherent coupling of each dot to a single coherently driven mechanical mode. Recent work on light harvesting molecules have implicated the role of discrete mechanical modes in enhancing the energy transport through dipole arrays but say less about directed transport. The study of quantum ratchets indicates how directed energy transport is possible in quantum dot arrays. Inspired by these two apparently unrelated models we show how directed energy transport may be implemented in an engineered quantum systems using a single mechanical degree of freedom. This may have implications for nano-engineered artificial energyharvesting systems.

There have been a number of new applications for energyharvesting with the ever-decreasing power consumption of microelectronic devices. In this paper we explore a new area of marine animal energyharvesting for use in powering tags known as bio-loggers. These devices record data about the animal or its surroundings, but have always had limited deployment times due to battery depletion. Reduced solar irradiance below the water's surface provides the impetus to explore other energyharvesting concepts beyond solar power for use on marine animals. We review existing tag technologies in relation to this application, specifically relating to energy consumption. Additionally, we propose a new idea for energyharvesting, using hydrostatic pressure changes as a source for energy production. We present initial testing results of a bench-top model and show that the daily energyharvesting potential from this technology can meet or exceed that consumed by current marine bio-logging tags. The application of this concept in the arena of bio-logging technology could substantially increase bio-logger deployment lifetimes, allowing for longitudinal studies over the course of multiple breeding and/or migration cycles.

Acoustic energyharvesters that function in environments where sound pressure is extremely high (~150 dB), such as in engine rooms of aircrafts, are expected to be capable of powering wireless health monitoring systems. This paper presents the power generation performances of a lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) acoustic energyharvester with a vibrating PZT diaphragm. The diaphragm had a diameter of 2 mm, consisting of Al(0.1 μm)/PZT(1 μm)/Pt(0.1 μm)/Ti(0.1 μm)/SiO2(1.5 μm). The harvester generated a power of 1.7×10-13 W under a sound pressure level of 110 dB at the first resonance frequency of 6.28 kHz. It was found that the generated power was increased to 6.8×10-13 W using a sound-collecting Helmholtz resonator cone with the height of 60 mm. The cone provided a Helmholtz resonance at 5.8 kHz, and the generated power increased from 3.4×10-14 W to 1.4×10-13 W at this frequency. The cone was also effective in increasing the bandwidth of the energyharvester.

There is going on a flurry of research activity in the development of effcient energyharvesters from all branches of energy conversion. The need for developing self-powered wireless sensors and actuators to be employed in unmanned combat vehicles also seems to grow steadily. These vehicles are inducted into perilous war zones for silent watch missions. Energy management is sometimes carried out using misson-aware energy expenditure strategies. Also, when there is a requirement for constant monitoring of events, the sensors and the subsystems of combat vehicles require energyharvesters that can operate over a discrete set of spot frequencies. This paper attempts to review some of the recent techniques and the energyharvesting devices based on electromagnetic and electromechanical principles. In particular, we shall discuss the design and performance of a MEMS-harvester that exhibits multiple resonances. Frequency response of a simulated electromagnetic harvester is plotted. It has three dominant peaks at three different resonant frequencies. Variation in the load power in the normalized units as a function of load is found, which determines the matched load resistance.

Piezoelectric cantilever beam energyharvesters are commonly used to convert ambient vibration into electrical energy. In practical applications, energyharvesters are subjected to large shocks which can shorten the service life by causing mechanical failure. In this work, a bump stop is introduced into the design of a piezoelectric cantilever beam energyharvester to limit the maximum displacement of the cantilever and prevent excessively high bending stresses developing as a result of shocks. In addition to limiting the maximum displacement of the beam, it is inevitable that the deflected shape of the beam and the electrical output are modified. A theoretical model for a piezoelectric cantilever beam harvester impacting against a stop is derived, which aims to develop an understanding of the vibration characteristics of the cantilever and quantify how the electrical output of the harvester is affected by the stop. An experiment is set up to measure the dynamics and the electrical output of a bimorph energyharvester and to validate the theoretical model. Numerical simulation results are presented for energyharvesters with different initial gaps and different stop locations, and it is found that the reduction in maximum bending stress is at the expense of the electrical power of the harvester.

Energyharvesting from ubiquitous ambient vibrations is attractive for autonomous small-power applications and thus considerable research is focused on piezoelectric materials as they permit direct inter-conversion of mechanical and electrical energy. Nanogenerators (NGs) based on piezoelectric nanowires are particularly attractive due to their sensitivity to small-scale vibrations and may possess superior mechanical-to-electrical conversion efficiency when compared to bulk or thin-film devices of the same material. However, candidate piezoelectric nanowires have hitherto been predominantly analyzed in terms of NG output (i.e. output voltage, output current and output power density). Surprisingly, the corresponding dynamical properties of the NG, including details of how the nanowires are mechanically driven and its impact on performance, have been largely neglected. Here we investigate all realizable NG driving contexts separately involving inertial displacement, applied stress T and applied strain S, highlighting the effect of driving mechanism and frequency on NG performance in each case. We argue that, in the majority of cases, the intrinsic high resonance frequencies of piezoelectric nanowires (∼tens of MHz) present no barrier to high levels of NG performance even at frequencies far below resonance (<1 kHz) typically characteristic of ambient vibrations. In this context, we introduce vibrationalenergyharvesting (VEH) coefficients ηS and ηT, based on intrinsic materials properties, for comparing piezoelectric NG performance under strain-driven and stress-driven conditions respectively. These figures of merit permit, for the first time, a general comparison of piezoelectric nanowires for NG applications that takes into account the nature of the mechanical excitation. We thus investigate the energyharvesting performance of prototypical piezoelectric ceramic and polymer nanowires. We find that even though ceramic and polymer nanowires have been found, in

Energyharvesting from ubiquitous ambient vibrations is attractive for autonomous small-power applications and thus considerable research is focused on piezoelectric materials as they permit direct inter-conversion of mechanical and electrical energy. Nanogenerators (NGs) based on piezoelectric nanowires are particularly attractive due to their sensitivity to small-scale vibrations and may possess superior mechanical-to-electrical conversion efficiency when compared to bulk or thin-film devices of the same material. However, candidate piezoelectric nanowires have hitherto been predominantly analyzed in terms of NG output (i.e. output voltage, output current and output power density). Surprisingly, the corresponding dynamical properties of the NG, including details of how the nanowires are mechanically driven and its impact on performance, have been largely neglected. Here we investigate all realizable NG driving contexts separately involving inertial displacement, applied stress T and applied strain S, highlighting the effect of driving mechanism and frequency on NG performance in each case. We argue that, in the majority of cases, the intrinsic high resonance frequencies of piezoelectric nanowires (∼tens of MHz) present no barrier to high levels of NG performance even at frequencies far below resonance (<1 kHz) typically characteristic of ambient vibrations. In this context, we introduce vibrationalenergyharvesting (VEH) coefficients ηS and ηT, based on intrinsic materials properties, for comparing piezoelectric NG performance under strain-driven and stress-driven conditions respectively. These figures of merit permit, for the first time, a general comparison of piezoelectric nanowires for NG applications that takes into account the nature of the mechanical excitation. We thus investigate the energyharvesting performance of prototypical piezoelectric ceramic and polymer nanowires. We find that even though ceramic and polymer nanowires have been found, in

We examine multiple responses of a vibrationalenergyharvester composed of a vertical beam and a tip mass. The beam is excited horizontally by a harmonic inertial force while mechanical vibrationalenergy is converted to electrical power through a piezoelectric patch. The mechanical resonator can be described by single or double well potentials depending on the gravity force from the tip mass. By changing the tip mass we examine the appearance of various solutions and their basins of attraction. Identification of particular solutions of the energyharvester is important as each solution may provide a different level of power output.

We have developed an energyharvester that is specifically desired for impulse acceleration of infrastructure vibrations such as sudden motion at railway bridges. The energyharvester based on potassium-ion-electret on the sidewalls of 1.8- μm-gap comb electrodes generated a 64 μAp-p current during low impulse acceleration, which was large enough to light a green LED.

In the first part of the paper, a single degree-of-freedom model of a vibrating membrane with piezoelectric inserts is introduced and is initially applied to the case when a plane wave is incident with frequency close to one of the resonance frequencies. The model is a prototype of a device which converts ambient acoustical energy to electrical energy with the use of piezoelectric devices. The paper then proposes an enhancement of the energyharvesting process using a nonlinear processing of the output voltage of piezoelectric actuators, and suggests that this improves the energy conversion and reduces the sensitivity to frequency drifts. A theoretical discussion is given for the electrical power that can be expected making use of various models. This and supporting experimental results suggest that a nonlinear optimization approach allows a gain of up to 10 in harvestedenergy and a doubling of the bandwidth. A model is introduced in the latter part of the paper for predicting the behavior of the energy-harvesting device with changes in acoustic frequency, this model taking into account the damping effect and the frequency changes introduced by the nonlinear processes in the device. PMID:21110569

Cantilevered piezoelectric harvesters have been extensively considered in the energyharvesting literature. Mostly, a traditional cantilevered beam with one or more piezoceramic layers is located on a vibrating host structure. Motion of the host structure results in vibrations of the harvester beam and that yields an alternating voltage output. As an alternative to classical cantilevered beams, this paper presents a novel harvesting device; a flexible L-shaped beam-mass structure that can be tuned to have a two-to-one internal resonance to a primary resonance ω II ≅ 2ω I which is not possible for classical cantilevers). The L-shaped structure has been well investigated in the literature of nonlinear dynamics since the two-to-one internal resonance, along with the consideration of quadratic nonlinearities, may yield modal energy exchange (for excitation frequency ω≅ ω Ior the so-called saturation phenomenon (for ω≅ω II). As a part of our ongoing research on piezoelectric energyharvesting, we are investigating the possibility of improving the electrical outputs in energyharvesting by employing these features of the L-shaped structure. This paper aims to introduce the idea, describes the important features of the L-shaped harvester configuration and develops a linear distributed parameter model for predicting the electromechanically coupled response. In addition, this work proposes a direct application of the L-shaped piezoelectric energyharvester configuration for use as landing gears in unmanned air vehicle applications.

Energyharvesters convert waste power (heat, light and vibration) directly to electric power . Fast progress in their technology, design and areas of application (e.g. “Internet of Things”) has been observed recently. Their effectiveness is steadily growing which makes their application to powering sensor networks with wireless data transfer reasonable. The main advantage is the independence from wired power sources, which is especially important for monitoring state of environmental parameters. In this paper we describe the design and realization of a gas sensor monitoring CO level (powered by TEG) and two, designed an constructed in ITE, autonomous power supply modules powered by modern photovoltaic cells.

In this article, a piezoelectric energyharvesting has been developed experimentally and theoretically based on Euler- Bernoulli Theory. A PVDF piezoelectric thick film has attached along of clamped-clamped beam under sinusoidal base excitation of shaker. The results showed a good agreement between the experimental and simulation of suggested model. The voltage output frequency response function (FRF), current FRF, and output power has been studied under short and open circuit conditions at first vibration mode. The mode shape of the clamped-clamped beam for first three resonance frequency has been modeled and investigated using COMSOL Multiphysics and MATLAB.

We present broadband two-dimensional electronic spectra of a lightharvesting protein from photosynthetic algae. Analysis of the spectra show that the amplitude of the main cross peak oscillates as a function of the waiting time period. Both electronic coupling and intramolecular vibrational modes, and their mixture, can lead to such oscillations. Using predictions based on models of four-level systems, we describe ways to distinguish electronic from vibrational contributions to the coherence and find that both types of coupling contribute to the measured dynamics.

This letter reports a piezoelectric cantilever-pendulum design for multi-directional energyharvesting. A pendulum is attached to the tip of a piezoelectric cantilever-type energyharvester. This design aims at taking advantage of the nonlinear coupling between the pendulum motion in 3-dimensional space and the beam bending vibration at resonances. Experimental studies indicate that, under properly chosen parameters, 1:2 internal resonance can be induced, which enables the multi-directional energyharvesting with a single cantilever. The advantages of the design with respect to traditional piezoelectric cantilever are examined.

This letter reports a piezoelectric cantilever-pendulum design for multi-directional energyharvesting. A pendulum is attached to the tip of a piezoelectric cantilever-type energyharvester. This design aims at taking advantage of the nonlinear coupling between the pendulum motion in 3-dimensional space and the beam bending vibration at resonances. Experimental studies indicate that, under properly chosen parameters, 1:2 internal resonance can be induced, which enables the multi-directional energyharvesting with a single cantilever. The advantages of the design with respect to traditional piezoelectric cantilever are examined.

In this paper, we study the vibrational resonance (VR) phenomenon as a useful mechanism for energyharvesting purposes. A system, driven by a low frequency and a high frequency forcing, can give birth to the vibrational resonance phenomenon, when the two forcing amplitudes resonate and a maximum in amplitude is reached. We apply this idea to a bistable oscillator that can convert environmental kinetic energy into electrical energy, that is, an energyharvester. Normally, the VR phenomenon is studied in terms of the forcing amplitudes or of the frequencies, that are not always easy to adjust and change. Here, we study the VR generated by tuning another parameter that is possible to manipulate when the forcing values depend on the environmental conditions. We have investigated the dependence of the maximum response due to the VR for small and large variations in the forcing amplitudes and frequencies. Besides, we have plotted color coded figures in the space of the two forcing amplitudes, in which it is possible to appreciate different patterns in the electrical power generated by the system. These patterns provide useful information on the forcing amplitudes in order to produce the optimal electrical power.

Nonlinear energyharvesters are very sensitive to ambient vibrations. If the excitation level is too low, their large-amplitude oscillations for high-energy voltage output cannot be obtained. A nonlinear tristable energyharvester has been previously proposed to achieve more effective broadband energyharvesting for low-level excitations. However, the sensitivity of its dynamic characteristics to the system parameters remains uninvestigated. Therefore, this paper theoretically analyzes the influence of the external load, the external excitation, the internal system parameters and the equilibrium positions on the dynamic responses of nonlinear tristable energyharvesters by using the harmonic balance method. In addition, numerical acceleration excitation thresholds and basins of attraction are provided to investigate the potential for energyharvesting performance enhancement using the suitable equilibrium positions, appropriate initial conditions or external disturbances, due to high-energy interwell oscillations in the multi-solution ranges. More importantly, experimental voltage responses of a given tristable energyharvester versus the external excitation frequency and amplitude verify the existence of experimental multi-solution ranges and the effectiveness of the theoretical analysis. It is also revealed that achieving high-energy interwell oscillations in the multi-solution ranges of tristable energyharvesters will be feasible for improving energyharvesting from low-level ambient excitations.

In our previous studies, multiple piezoelectric cantilever plates were placed inside a quarter-wavelength straight tube resonator to harvest low frequency acoustic energy. To investigate the modification of eigenmodes in the tube resonator due to the presence of piezoelectric plates, the eigenfrequency shift properties by introducing single and multiple rectangular blockages in open-closed ducts are studied by using 1D segmented Helmholtz equations, Webster horn equation, and finite element simulations. The first-mode eigenfrequency of the duct is reduced when the blockage is placed near the open inlet. The decrease of eigenfrequency leads to the enhancement of absorbed acoustic power in the duct. Furthermore, the first half of the tube resonator possesses high pressure gradient resulting in larger driving forces for the vibration motion of piezoelectric plates. Therefore, in our harvesters, it is better to place the piezoelectric plates in the first half of the tube resonator to obtain high output voltage and power.

Energy-harvesting series electromagnetic tuned mass dampers (EMTMDs) have been recently proposed for dual-functional energyharvesting and robust vibration control by integrating the tuned mass damper (TMD) and electromagnetic shunted resonant damping. In this paper, we derive ready-to-use analytical tuning laws for the energy-harvesting series EMTMD system when the primary structure is subjected to force or ground excitations, like wind loads or earthquakes. Both vibration mitigation and energyharvesting performances are optimized using H2 criteria to minimize root-mean-square values of the deformation of the primary structure, or maximize the average harvestable power. These analytical tuning laws can easily guide the design of series EMTMDs under various ambient loadings. Later, extensive numerical analysis is presented to show the effectiveness of the series EMTMDs. The numerical analysis shows that the series EMTMD is superior to mitigate the vibration of the primary structure nearly across the whole frequency spectrum, as compared to that of classic TMDs. Simultaneously, the series EMTMD can better harvest the energy due to broader bandwidth effect. Beyond simulations, this paper also experimentally verifies the effectiveness of the energy-harvesting series electromagnetic TMDs in both vibration mitigation and energyharvesting.

To enhance the energy conversion performance of piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvesters, such structures have been recently designed to leverage bandwidth-enhancing nonlinear dynamics. While key findings have been made, the majority of researchers have evaluated the opportunities when the harvesters are connected to pure resistive loads (AC interface). The alternating voltage generated by such energyharvesting systems cannot be directly utilized to power conventional electronics. Rectifying circuits are required to interface the device and electronic load but few efforts have considered how a standard rectifying DC interface circuit (DC interface) connected to a nonlinear piezoelectric energyharvester influences the system performance. The aim of this research is to begin exploring this critical feature of the nonlinear energyharvesting system. A nonlinear, monostable piezoelectric energyharvester (MPEH) is fabricated and evaluated to determine the generated power and useful operating bandwidth when connected to a DC interface. The nonlinearity is introduced into the harvester design by tuneable magnetic force. An equivalent circuit model of the MPEH is implemented with a user-defined nonlinear behavioral voltage source representative of the magnetic interaction. The model is validated comparing the open circuit voltage from circuit simulation and experiment. The practical energyharvesting capability of the MPEH connected to the AC and DC interface circuits are then investigated and compared, focusing on the influence of the varying load on the nonlinear dynamics and subsequent bandwidth and harvested power.

Frequency up-conversion is a very efficient method of energyharvesting in order to overcome low, non-periodic, or altered ambient vibration. In order to perform frequency up-conversion and transference of mechanical energy without contact, an eddy current-induced magnetic drag force is used. In this paper, we present a novel configuration of eddy current-induced magnetic plucking for piezoelectric energyharvesting. Our method consists of two permanent magnets, a piezoelectric beam, and a copper disk piece. We design our harvesting method to achieve loading, sudden release, and free vibration using the actuation of the piezoelectric beam through the magnetic mutual coupling between the magnet and copper disk piece. We present the principle of magnetic drag force-generation, characterize the energyharvesting performance of our harvesting method, and demonstrate our harvesting method’s capability of frequency up-conversion and transference of mechanical energy without contact under low, non-periodic, or altered ambient vibration. To that end, we describe the calculation of magnetic drag force with various geometric dimensions and material properties, model of the piezoelectric cantilever beam, comparison between estimation response and measured experiment response, and the measured voltage and power responses.

A battery-less wireless sensor node using a vibration-driven MEMS electret energyharvester has been prototyped. With hybrid high-aspect ratio parylene springs and high-performance electret material based on perfluoro polymer CYTOP, more than 3μW output power can be obtained in a broad range vibration frequency of 26-40 Hz at 1.4 G. By integrating the energyharvester with a power management circuit, low-power-consumption CPU, and RF IC, intermittent wireless transmission with an interval of 80.6 s has been realized.

Today research on supplying of low power consumption device is highly focused on piezoelectric energyharvesting from ambient vibration. The most popular structure is a cantilever beam with piezoelectric patch to convert mechanical energy into electric energy. In the past researches, the theoretical analysis and interfacing circuit design of single cantilever beam structure is highly developed. In this study, the electrical interfacing circuit of two (or more) piezoelectric generators connected to only one load is proposed and discussed. The nonlinear synchronized switching technique SSHI (Synchronized Switching Harvesting in Inductor) is examined to increase the power efficiency effectively of each piezoelectric generator. In the multiple cantilever beam or flag structure application, the structure may be composed of many piezoelectric patches and the interfacing circuit becomes more complicated and important. From the theoretical analysis and the governing equation, the equivalent circuit of two cantilever beam will be proposed and simulated with the optimized synchronous electric charge extraction (OSECE) nonlinear technique to optimize the interfacing circuit and increase the power efficiency by using the Matlab and PSIM software. The experiments will also show the good agreement with the theoretical analysis. The interfacing circuit design concept in the two cantilever beams structure can be further used in the multi-piezoelectric patches energyharvesting system such as piezoelectric flag to optimize the circuit and increase the power efficiency.

The purpose of this work is to present recent advances in modelling and design of piezoelectric energyharvesters, in the framework of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS). More specifically, the case of inertial energyharvesting is considered, in the sense that the kinetic energy due to environmental vibration is transformed into electrical energy by means of piezoelectric transduction. The execution of numerical analyses is greatly important in order to predict the actual behaviour of MEMS devices and to carry out the optimization process. In the common practice, the results are obtained by means of burdensome 3D Finite Element Analyses (FEA). The case of beams could be treated by applying 1D models, which can enormously reduce the computational burden with obvious benefits in the case of repeated analyses. Unfortunately, the presence of piezoelectric coupling may entail some serious issues in view of its intrinsically three-dimensional behaviour. In this paper, a refined, yet simple, model is proposed with the objective of retaining the Euler-Bernoulli beam model, with the inclusion of effects connected to the actual three-dimensional shape of the device. The proposed model is adopted to evaluate the performances of realistic harvesters, both in the case of harmonic excitation and for impulsive loads.

In this work, an electromagnetic energyharvester operating at microwave frequencies is designed based on a cut- wire metasurface. This metamaterial is known to contain a quasistatic electric dipole resonator leading to a strong resonant electric response when illuminated by electromagnetic fields.1 Starting from an equivalent electrical circuit, we analytically design the parameters of the system to tune the resonance frequency of the harvester at the desired frequency band. Subsequently, we compare these results with numerical simulations, which have been obtained using finite elements numerical simulations. Finally, we optimize the design by investigating the best arrangement for energyharvesting by coupling in parallel and in series many single layers of cut-wire metasurfaces. We also discuss the implementation of different geometries and sizes of the cut-wire metasurface for achieving different center frequencies and bandwidths.

Wireless sensor network is one of the prospective methods for railway monitoring due to the long-term operation and low-maintenance performances. How to supply power to the wireless sensor nodes has drawn much attention recently. In railway monitoring, the idea of converting ambient vibrationenergy from vibration of railway track induced by passing trains to electric energy has made it a potential way for powering the wireless sensor nodes. Nowadays, most of vibration based energyharvesters are designed at resonance. However, as railway vibration frequency is a wide band range, how to design an energyharvester working at that range is critical. In this paper, the energy consumption of the wireless smart sensor platform, Imote2, at different working states were investigated. Based on the energy consumption, a design of a bimorph cantilever piezoelectric energyharvester has been optimized to generate maximum average power between a wide-band frequency range. Significant power and current outputs have been increased after optimal design. Finally, the rechargeable battery life for supplying the Imote2 for railway monitoring is predicted by using the optimized piezoelectric energyharvesting system.

Harvestingenergy from ambient mechanical vibrations is a smart and efficient way to power autonomous sensors and support innovative developments in IoT (Internet of Things), WSN (Wireless Sensor Network) and even implantable medical devices. Beyond the environmental operating conditions, efficiency of such devices is mainly related to energy source properties like the amplitude of vibrations and its spectral contain and some of these applications exhibit a quite low frequency spectrum where harvesting surrounding mechanical energy make sense, typically 5-50Hz for implantable medical devices or 50Hz-150Hz for industrial machines. Harvesting such low frequency vibrations is a challenge since it leads to adapt the resonator geometries to the targeted frequency or to use out-off band indirect harvesting strategies. In this paper we present a piezoelectric based vibrationalenergyharvesting device (PEH) which could be integrated into a biocompatible package to power implantable sensor or therapeutic medical devices. The presented architecture is a serial bimorph laminated with ultra-thinned (ranging from 15μm to 100μm) outer PZT “skins” that could operate at a “very low frequency”, below 25Hz typically. The core process flow is disclosed and performances highlighted with regards to other low frequency demonstrations.

This paper presents the design and experimental characterization of a compact parallel-beam architecture for low-frequency energyharvesters that switch passively among dynamical modes to extend their operational range. Two beams interact to generate power; a driving beam couples into low frequency vibrations, and a higher frequency generating beam outputs power upon impact by the driving beam. The system switches between modes in which the driving beam bounces off the generating beam (coupled motion) and modes in which the driving beam passes the generating beam (plucked motion). The compact structure is realized by mounting the generating beam within a U-shaped driving beam on a single support. A flexible tip is mounted inside the driving beam's U shape to enable robust interactions. This new architecture reduces system volume by 80% compared with an earlier model that has the same resonance frequency, but it also changes the flexible tip's role in the contact dynamics. The flexible tip is experimentally tailored to optimize performance. The harvester generates power over the measured range of acceleration from 0.2 g to 2 g and driving frequency from 5 Hz to 20 Hz. With one tip design, the harvester offers peak power of 0.267 mW with plucked operation covering 32% of the tested range. With a second tip design, the harvester offers a lower peak power of 0.036 mW with plucked operation covering 73% of the tested range.

A method of continuously harvestingenergy from pyroelectric materials is demonstrated using an innovative cyclic heating scheme. In traditional pyroelectric energyharvesting methods, static heating sources are used, and most of the available energy has to be harvested at once. A cyclic heating system is developed such that the temperature varies between hot and cold regions. Although the energyharvested during each period of the heating cycle is small, the accumulated total energy over time may exceed traditional methods. Three materials are studied: a commonly available soft lead zirconate titanate (PZT), a pre-stressed PZT composite, and single-crystal PMN-30PT. Radiation heating and natural cooling are used such that, at smaller cyclic frequencies, the temporal rate of change in temperature is large enough to produce high power densities. The maximum power density of 8.64 μW/cm3 is generated with a PMN-30PT single crystal at an angular velocity of 0.64 rad/s with a rate of 8.5°C/s. The pre-stressed PZT composite generated a power density of 6.31 μW/cm(3), which is 40% larger than the density of 4.48 μW/cm3 obtained from standard PZT. PMID:21244970

Piezoelectric energyharvesting has become a feasible method for powering micro portable electronics and wireless sensor networks by converting ambient vibrationenergy into electrical energy. As a thumb of rule, it is critical to tune the resonant frequency of the generator to the frequency of the environmental vibrations in order to induce the maximum structural deformation and then the maximum converted electrical energy through piezoelectric effect. However, it is well-known that the ambient vibrations are not usually fixed in only one single frequency and could span over a limited frequency band. In this paper, a band-pass design optimization of piezoelectric cantilever bimorph (PCB) energyharvester is presented based on the system transfer function of the PCB generator presented in a previous literature. For such an energyharvester, a group of PCB with dimensions appropriately selected can be integrated into a band-pass energyharvester working over a limited frequency band if the dimensions of piezoelectric bimorphs and proof masses are appropriately chosen. Further, the finite element analysis (FEA) of such a band-pass energyharvester is performed in ANSYS to validate the theoretical proposal. The result shows that the band-pass design optimization leads to a piezoelectric generator working over a certain frequency band while keeping outputting the relatively stable open-circuit voltage.

Piezoelectric and electromagnetic transduction techniques have peculiar advantages to leverage in the growing field of flow energyharvesting from aeroelastic vibrations. This letter presents the concept of hybrid piezoelectric-inductive power generation with electroaeroelastic modeling and simulations. Dimensionless analysis of the coupled system dynamics is indispensable to proper geometric scaling and optimization of aeroelastic energyharvesters. The governing electroaeroelastic equations are given in dimensionless form, and the effects of aeroelastic and electrical properties are investigated in detail toward understanding the dependence of the cut-in speed (flutter speed) and the maximum power output of the harvester on the system parameters.

In order to maximize energy from ambient vibration sources, wide band harvesters working at a range of frequencies are important. This paper presents an electrodynamic energyharvester model working for a frequency band from 25 Hz to 45 Hz. The developed converter consists of a magnetic spring formed by one moving magnet placed between two fixed magnets. A ring magnet is placed around the moving magnet leading to additional nonlinear stiffness to increase the power output. A comparison to a basic configuration electrodynamic converter was carried out by finite element analysis to show that a significant increase in power output was realized. Simulation results have been confirmed by experimental investigations under harmonic excitations. Based on the experimental time series, we have examined the frequency spectrum and phase portraits to identify the dynamic response of the system. In conclusion, the generator is able to harvest 1.5 times more energy than the simple generator for the bandwidth of 20 Hz with the resonant frequency of 35 Hz and the excitation amplitude of 2 mm.

A review of several of the available theories of vibrationalenergy transfer (VET) in the gas and liquid phases is presented. First the classical theory of gas phase VET mainly due to Landau and Teller, to Jackson and Mott and to Zener is developed in some detail. Next the Schwartz-Slawsky-Herzfeld theory, a framework for analysing VET data based on the classical theory, is outlined. Experimental tests of the classical theory and theoretical critiques of its assumptions are then described. Next a brief review of the modern ab-initio quantum approach to gas phase VET rates, taking as an example the work of Banks, Clary and Werner, is given. Theories of VET at elevated densities are then discussed. The isolated binary collision model is reviewed and a new molecular approach to the density, temperature and isotope dependences of vibrationalenergy relaxation rates, due to Adelman and co-workers, is outlined.

The delocalized, anticorrelated component of pigment vibrations can drive nonadiabatic electronic energy transfer in photosynthetic light-harvesting antennas. In femtosecond experiments, this energy transfer mechanism leads to excitation of delocalized, anticorrelated vibrational wavepackets on the ground electronic state that exhibit not only 2D spectroscopic signatures attributed to electronic coherence and oscillatory quantum energy transport but also a cross-peak asymmetry not previously explained by theory. A number of antennas have electronic energy gaps matching a pigment vibrational frequency with a small vibrational coordinate change on electronic excitation. Such photosynthetic energy transfer steps resemble molecular internal conversion through a nested intermolecular funnel. PMID:23267114

Electromagnetic (EM) energyharvesting seems to be one of the most promising ways to power wireless sensors in a wireless sensor network. In this paper, FR4, the most commonly used PCB material, is utilized as a mechanical vibrating structure for EM energyharvesting for body-worn sensors and intelligent tire sensors, which involve impact loadings. FR4 can be a better material for such applications compared to silicon MEMS devices due to lower stiffness and broadband response. In order to demonstrate FR4 performance and broadband response, three moving magnet type EM generator designs are developed and investigated throughout the paper. A velocity-damped harvester simulation model is first developed, including a detailed magnetic model and the magnetic damping effects. The numerical results agree well with the experimental results. Human running acceleration at the hip area that is obtained experimentally is simulated in order to demonstrate system performance, which results in a scavenged power of about 40 µW with 15 m s-2 acceleration input. The designed FR4 energy scavengers with mechanical stoppers implemented are particularly well suited for nearly periodic and non-sinusoidal high- g excitations with rich harmonic content. For the intelligent tire applications, a special compact FR4 scavenger is designed that is able to withstand large shocks and vibrations due to mechanical shock stoppers built into the structure. Using our design, 0.4 mW power across a load resistance at off-resonance operation is obtained in shaker experiments. In the actual operation, the tangential accelerations as a result of the tire-road contact are estimated to supply power around 1 mW with our design, which is sufficient for powering wireless tire sensors. The normalized power density (NPD) of the designed actuators compares favorably with most actuators reported in the literature.

Energyharvesting is the process by which energy is taken from the environment and transformed to provide power for electronics. Specifically, the conversion of thermal energy into electrical power, or thermoelectrics, can play a crucial role in future developments of alternative sources of energy. Unfortunately, present thermoelectrics have low efficiency. Therefore, an important task in condensed matter physics is to find new ways to harvest ambient thermal energy, particularly at the smallest length scales where electronics operate. To achieve this goal, there is on one hand the miniaturizing of electrical devices, and on the other, the maximization of either efficiency or power the devices produce. We will present the theory of nano heat engines able to efficiently convert heat into electrical power. We propose a resonant tunneling quantum dot engine that can be operated either in the Carnot efficient mode, or maximal power mode. The ability to scale the power by putting many such engines in a ``Swiss cheese sandwich'' geometry gives a paradigmatic system for harvesting thermal energy at the nanoscale. This work was supported by the US NSF Grant No. DMR-0844899, the Swiss NSF, the NCCR MaNEP and QSIT, the European STREP project Nanopower, the CSIC and FSE JAE-Doc program, the Spanish MAT2011-24331 and the ITN Grant 234970 (EU)

An acoustic energyharvesting mechanism to harvest a travelling sound wave at a low audible frequency (180 ˜ 200Hz) is further developed and studied both experimentally and numerically. The acoustic energyharvester in this study consists of a quarter-wavelength straight tube resonator and multiple piezoelectric oscillators in wire and plate shapes placed inside the tube. When the tube resonator is excited by an incident sound at its acoustic resonant frequency, the amplified acoustic pressure inside the tube drives the vibration motions of piezoelectric oscillators, resulting in generating electricity. It has been found that a single piezoelectric plate generates more power than a wire, but with placing in multiple-rows piezoelectric wires more power is produced. Parallel and series connections of multiple piezoelectric oscillators have also been studied and expressions for calculating optimum loading resistance have been presented. It has been found that the series connection generates more power than parallel connection. As the number of piezoelectric oscillators increases, the magnitude of the single loading resistance decreases. The decrease of loading resistance is more intense in multiple wires than in multiple plates and in parallel connection than in series connection.

We present a novel thermal energyharvesting system using triboelectric effect. Recently, there has been intensive research efforts on energyharvesting using triboelectric effect, which can produce surprising amount of electric power (when compared to piezoelectric materials) by rubbing or touching (i.e, electric charge by contact and separation) two different materials together. Numerous studies have shown the possibility as an attractive alternative with good transparency, flexibility and low cost abilities for its use in wearable device and smart phone applications markets. However, its application has been limited to only vibration source, which can produce sustained oscillation with maintaining contact and separation states repeatedly for triboelectric effect. Thus, there has been no attempt toward thermal energy source. The proposed approach can convert thermal energy into electricity by pairing triboelectric effect and active ferromagnetic materials The objective of the research is to develop a new manufacturing process of design, fabrication, and testing of a Magneto-Thermo-Triboelectric Generator (MTTG). The results obtained from the approach show that MTTG devices have a feasible power energy conversion capability from thermal energy sources. The tunable design of the device is such that it has efficient thermal capture over a wide range of operation temperature in waste heat.

The paper discusses selected problems related to application of energyharvesting (that is, generating electricity from surplus energy present in the environment) to supply autonomous ultra-low-power measurement systems applicable in high voltage engineering. As a practical example of such implementation a laboratory model of a remote temperature sensor is presented, which is self-powered by heat generated in a current-carrying busbar in HV- switchgear. Presented system exploits a thermoelectric harvester based on a passively cooled Peltier module supplying micro-power low-voltage dc-dc converter driving energy-efficient temperature sensor, microcontroller and a fibre-optic transmitter. Performance of the model in laboratory simulated conditions are presented and discussed.

This paper investigates the opportunities of deploying distributed sensors within the manufacturing environment of a large scale automobile plant using energyharvesting techniques. Measurements were taken in three domains at the plant in order to characterize ambient energy. Due to the location of the plant, the RF power density for radio access technologies present varied between -127 dBm/cm2 and -113 dBm/cm2. The maximum temperature difference measured within accessible distance from machine parts on the production lines surveyed was 10°C. Indoor lighting was dominant at the plant via fluorescent tubes, with average irradiance of 1 W/m2. The results obtained from this measurement campaign showed that indoor lighting was the most suitable ambient source for energyharvesting.

A piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvester with interdigital shaped cantilever was developed by using silicon bulk micromachining technology. The proposed energyharvester was designed to obtain multi degree-of-freedom (m-DOF). Most of the piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvesters are comprised of mass-loaded cantilever beams having several resonant frequencies. The second resonant frequency of such a device has lower amplitude compared to its first resonant frequency (fundamental frequency). Therefore, the interdigital shaped cantilever has been proposed for multiple fundamental resonant frequencies. The fabricated piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvester is composed of main cantilever (MC), sub-main cantilever (SMC), and secondary cantilevers (SC). MC surrounds SMC and SC which have same dimension of 5600 x 800 x 10 μm3. The fabricated piezoelectric energyharvester can generate 51.4 mV(p-p) and 11 mV(p-p) of output voltages at 24.2 Hz and 33 Hz of its resonant frequencies by MC. Moreover, it can generate 8 mV(p-p) and 6.6 mV(p-p) of output voltages at 24.2 Hz and 33.2 Hz of its resonant frequencies by SMC; and 364 mV(p-p) of output voltage at 33.6 Hz of its resonant frequency by SC. PMID:27483909

Piezoelectric transducers are widely employed in vibration-based energyharvesting schemes. Simple piezoelectric cantilever for energyharvesting is uni-directional and has bandwidth limitation. In this research we explore utilizing internal resonances to harvest vibratory energy due to excitations from an arbitrary direction with the usage of a single piezoelectric cantilever. Specifically, it is identified that by attaching a pendulum to the piezoelectric cantilever, 1:2 internal resonances can be induced based on the nonlinear coupling. The nonlinear effect induces modal energy exchange between beam bending motion and pendulum motions in 3-dimensional space, which ultimately yield multidirectional energyharvesting by a single cantilever. Systematic analysis and experimental investigation are carried out to demonstrate this new concept.

This paper presents the new form of coils for electromagnetic energyharvesting system based on topology optimization method which look-liked a cap to maximize the power output. It could increase the number of magnetic flux linkage interception of a cylindrical permanent magnet which in this case is of 10mm diameter. Several coils with different geometrical properties have been build and tested on a vibration generator with frequency of 100Hz. The results showed that the coil with lowest number of winding transduced highest power output of 680μW while the highest number of windings generated highest voltage output of 0.16V.

An impacting-based piezoelectric energyharvester was developed to address the limitations of the existing approaches in single-dimensional operation as well as a narrow working bandwidth. In the harvester, a spiral cylindrical spring rather than the conventional thin cantilever beam was utilized to extract the external vibration with arbitrary directions, which has the capability to impact the surrounding piezoelectric beams to generate electricity. And the introduced vibro-impacting between the spiral cylindrical spring and multi-piezoelectric-beams resulted in not only a three-dimensional response to external vibration, but also a bandwidth-broadening behavior. The experimental results showed that each piezoelectric beam exhibited a maximum bandwidth of 8 Hz and power of 41 μW with acceleration of 1 g (with g=9.8 ms{sup −2}) along the z-axis, and corresponding average values of 5 Hz and 45 μW with acceleration of 0.6 g in the x-y plane. .

Piezoelectric energyharvesting from ambient vibrations is a potential technology for powering wireless sensors and low power electronic devices. The conventional linear harvesters suffer from narrow operational bandwidth. Many attempts have been made especially using the magnetic interaction to broaden the bandwidth of harvesters. The finite element (FE) modeling has been used only for analyzing the linear harvesters in the literature. The main difficulties in extending the FE modeling to analyze the nonlinear harvesters involving magnetic interaction are developing the mesh needed for magnetic interaction in dynamic problems and the high demand on computational resource needed for solving the coupled electrical-mechanical-magnetic problem. In this paper, an innovative method is proposed to model the magnetic interaction without inclusion of the magnetic module. The magnetic force is modeled using the nonlinear spring element available in ANSYS finite element analysis (FEA) package, thus simplifying the simulation of nonlinear piezoelectric energyharvesters as an electromechanically coupled problem. Firstly, an FE model of a monostable nonlinear harvester with cantilever configuration is developed and the results are validated with predictions from the theoretical model. Later, the proposed technique of FE modeling is extended to a complex 2-degree of freedom nonlinear energyharvester for which an accurate analytical model is difficult to derive. The performance predictions from FEA are compared with the experimental results. It is concluded that the proposed modeling technique is able to accurately analyze the behavior of nonlinear harvesters with magnetic interaction.

Piezoelectric fiber composites (PFC) represent an interesting subset of smart materials that can function as sensor, actuator and energy converter. Despite their excellent potential for energyharvesting, very few PFC mechanisms have been developed to capture the human body power and convert it into an electric current to power wearable electronic devices. This paper provides a proof of concept for a head-mounted device with a PFC chin strap capable of harvestingenergy from jaw movements. An electromechanical model based on the bond graph method is developed to predict the power output of the energyharvesting system. The optimum resistance value of the load and the best stretch ratio in the strap are also determined. A prototype was developed and tested and its performances were compared to the analytical model predictions. The proposed piezoelectric strap mechanism can be added to all types of head-mounted devices to power small-scale electronic devices such as hearing aids, electronic hearing protectors and communication earpieces.

The future of mobile Information and Communication Technology will be strongly affected by our success in solving the question of how to power very small devices. Ambient energyharvesting has been in recent years the recurring object of a number of research efforts aimed at providing an autonomous solution to the powering of small-scale electronic devices. Among the different solutions, micro scale vibrationenergyharvesting has played a major role due to the almost universal presence of mechanical vibrations mainly in the form of random fluctuations, i.e. noise. In this paper we briefly discuss the role of micro-energies and the possibility to harvest them by employing nonlinear dynamical systems.

Research and development into the topic of ambient assisted living has led to an increasing range of devices that facilitate a person's life. The issue of the power supply of these modern mobile systems however has not been solved satisfactorily yet. In this paper a flat inductive multi-coil harvester for integration into the shoe sole is presented. The device is designed for ambient assisted living (AAL) applications and particularly to power a self-lacing shoe. The harvester exploits the horizontal swing motion of the foot to generate energy. Stacks of opposing magnets move through a number of equally spaced coils to induce a voltage. The requirement of a flat structure which can be integrated into the shoe sole is met by a reduced form factor of the magnet stack. In order to exploit the full width of the shoe sole, supporting structures are used to parallelize the harvester and therefore increase the number of active elements, i.e. magnets and coils. The development and characterization of different harvester variations is presented with the best tested design generating an average power of up to 2.14 mW at a compact device size of 75 × 41.5 × 15 mm3 including housing.

Nanomaterial-based generators are a highly promising power supply for micro/nanoscale devices, capable of directly harvestingenergy from ambient sources without the need for batteries. These generators have been designed within four main types: piezoelectric, triboelectric, thermoelectric, and electret effects, and consist of ZnO-based, silicon-based, ferroelectric-material-based, polymer-based, and graphene-based examples. The representative achievements, current challenges, and future prospects of these nanogenerators are discussed. PMID:26378993

This paper deals with small-power energyharvesting from heat. It can be achieved using both thermoelectric and pyroelectric effects. In the first case, temperature gradients are necessary. The main difficulty of thermoelectric energyharvesting is imposing a large temperature gradient. This requires huge heat flows because of the limited surface heat exchanges and the large heat conductivity of thermoelectric materials. This results in a drastic decrease of power and the efficiency of conversion. In case of pyroelectric energyharvesting, a time varying temperature is necessary. Although such a temperature time profile is hard to find, the overall optimization is easier than the thermoelectric strategy. Indeed, it depends much less on heat exchange between the sample and the outer medium, than on heat capacity that dimensions optimization may easily compensate. As a consequence, it is shown that the efficiency and output power may be much larger using pyroelectric energyharvesting than thermoelectric methods. For instance, using a limited temperature gradient due to the limited heat exchange, a maximum efficiency of 1.7% of Carnot efficiency can be expected using a thermoelectric module. On the contrary, a pyroelectric device may reach an efficiency up to 50% of Carnot efficiency. Finally, an illustration shows an estimation of the output power that could be expected from natural time variations of temperature of a wearable device. Power peaks up to 0.2 mW cm-3 were found and a mean power of 1 µW cm-3 on average was determined within 24 h testing.

This paper presents a novel piezoelectric energyharvester, which is a MEMS-based device. This piezoelectric energyharvester uses a bifurcate-shape. The derivation of the mathematical modeling is based on the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, and the main mechanical and electrical parameters of this energyharvester are analyzed and simulated. The experiment result shows that the maximum output voltage can achieve 3.3V under an acceleration of 1g at 292.11Hz of frequency, and the output power can be up to 0.155mW under the load of 0.4MΩ. The power density is calculated as 496.79μWmm-3. Besides that, it is demonstrated efficiently at output power and voltage and adaptively in practical vibration circumstance. This energyharvester could be used for low-power electronic devices.

Vibrational dynamics of the light-harvesting complex II (LHC II) from spinach was investigated by quasi- and inelastic neutron scattering (QENS and INS) at three different temperatures of 80, 160, and 285 K. QENS/INS spectra of solubilised LHC II and of the corresponding buffer solution were obtained separately and exhibit characteristic inelastic features. After subtraction of the buffer contribution, the INS spectrum of LHC II reveals a distinct Boson peak at ˜ 2.5 meV at 80 K that shifts towards lower energies if the temperature is increased to 285 K. This effect is interpreted in terms of a "softening" of the protein matrix along with the dynamical transition at ˜ 240 K. Our findings indicate that INS is a valuable method to obtain the density of vibrational states not only at cryogenic, but also at physiological temperatures.

This paper studies the performance of an energyharvester with a piezoelectric bimorph (PB) and a real electrochemical battery (ECB), both are connected as an integrated system through a rectified dc-dc converter (DDC). A vibrating PB can scavenge energy from the operating environment by the electromechanical coupling. A DDC can effectively match the optimal output voltage of the harvesting structure to the battery voltage. To raise the output power density of PB, a synchronized switch harvesting inductor (SSHI) is used in parallel with the harvesting structure to reverse the voltage through charge transfer between the output electrodes at the transition moments from closed-to open-circuit. Voltage reversal results in earlier arrival of rectifier conduction because the output voltage phases of any two adjacent closed-circuit states are just opposite each other. In principle, a PB is with a smaller, flexural stiffness under closed-circuit condition than under open-circuit condition. Thus, the PB subjected to longer closed-circuit condition will be easier to be accelerated. A larger flexural velocity makes the PB to deflect with larger amplitude, which implies that more mechanical energy will be converted into an electric one. Nonlinear interface between the vibrating PB and the modulating circuit is analyzed in detail, and the effects of SSHI and DDC on the charging efficiency of the storage battery are researched numerically. It was found that the introduction of a DDC in the modulating circuit and an SSHI in the harvesting structure can raise the charging efficiency by several times. PMID:18334321

This study investigates multiple levels of impedance-matching methods for piezoelectric energyharvesting in order to enhance the conversion of mechanical to electrical energy. First, the transduction rate was improved by using a high piezoelectric voltage constant (g) ceramic material having a magnitude of g33 = 40 x 10(-3) V m/N. Second, a transducer structure, cymbal, was optimized and fabricated to match the mechanical impedance of vibration source to that of the piezoelectric transducer. The cymbal transducer was found to exhibit approximately 40 times higher effective strain coefficient than the piezoelectric ceramics. Third, the electrical impedance matching for the energyharvesting circuit was considered to allow the transfer of generated power to a storage media. It was found that, by using the 10-layer ceramics instead of the single layer, the output current can be increased by 10 times, and the output load can be reduced by 40 times. Furthermore, by using the multilayer ceramics the output power was found to increase by 100%. A direct current (DC)-DC buck converter was fabricated to transfer the accumulated electrical energy in a capacitor to a lower output load. The converter was optimized such that it required less than 5 mW for operation. PMID:17941391

The present study is concerned with an energy-harvesting linear MR (EH-LMR) damper which is able to recover energy from external excitations using an electromagnetic energy extractor, and to adjust itself to excitations by varying the damping characteristics. The device has three main components: an MR part having a damper piston assembly movable in relation to the damper cylinder under an external excitation, a power generator to produce electrical power according to the relative movement between the damper piston and the cylinder assembly, and a conditioning electronics unit to interface directly with the generator and the MR damper. The EH-LMR damper integrates energyharvesting, dynamic sensor and MR damping technologies in a single device. The objective of the study is to get a better insight into the structure of EH-LMR damper components, to investigate the performance of each component and a device as a whole, and to compare results of experimental study against numerical data obtained in simulations conducted at the design stage. The research work demonstrates that the proposed EH-LMR damper provides a smart and compact solution with the potential of application to vibration isolation. The advantage of the device is its adaptability to external excitations and the fact that it does not need any extra power supply unit or sensor on account of its self-powered and self-sensing capabilities.

Harvesting small thermal gradients effectively to generate electricity still remains a challenge. Ujihara et al (2007 Appl. Phys. Lett. 91 093508) have recently proposed a thermo-magnetic energyharvester that incorporates a combination of hard and soft magnets on a vibrating beam structure and two opposing heat transfer surfaces. This design has many advantages and could present an optimum solution to harvestenergy in low temperature gradient conditions. In this paper, we describe a multi-physics numerical model for this harvester configuration that incorporates all the relevant parameters, including heat transfer, magnetic force, beam vibration, contact surface and piezoelectricity. The model was used to simulate the complete transient behavior of the system. Results are presented for the evolution of the magnetic force, changes in the internal temperature of the soft magnet (gadolinium (Gd)), thermal contact conductance, contact pressure and heat transfer over a complete cycle. Variation of the vibration frequency with contact stiffness and gap distance was also modeled. Limit cycle behavior and its bifurcations are illustrated as a function of device parameters. The model was extended to include a piezoelectric energyharvesting mechanism and, using a piezoelectric bimorph as spring material, a maximum power of 318 μW was predicted across a 100 kΩ external load.

Present interest in decreasing US dependence on foreign oil by increasing the use of wood for energy may bring about a change in our forest utilization policies. In the past, forests have been removed in areas believed to be suited for agriculture, or sawtimber and pulp have been the only woody material removed in any quantity from land not generally considered tillable. The new demands on wood for energy are effecting a trend toward (1) removing all woody biomass from harvested areas, (2) increasing the frequency of harvesting second growth forests, and (3) increasing production with biomass plantations. Considering the marginal quality of much of the remaining forested land, the impacts of these modes of production could be significant. For example, it is anticipated that increased losses of nutrients and carbon will occur by direct forest removal and through erosion losses accelerated by forest clearing. There are, however, control measures that can be utilized in minimizing both direct and indirect effects of forest harvesting while maximizing woody biomass production.

Both in natural photosynthetic systems and also their molecularly engineered mimics, energy is generally transferred to the sites of its chemical storage from other sites of primary optical excitation. This migration process generally entails a number of steps, frequently involving intermediary chromophore units, with each step characterised by high efficiency and rapidity. Energy thereby accrues at reaction centres where its chemical storage occurs. At high levels of irradiation, energyharvesting material can exhibit novel forms of optical nonlinearity. Such behaviour is associated with the direct pooling of excitation energy, enabling secondary acceptors to undergo transitions to states whose energy equals that of two or more input photons, subject to decay losses. Observations of this kind have now been made on a variety of materials, ranging from photoactive dyes, through fullerene derivatives, to lanthanide doped crystals. Recently developed theory has established the underlying principles and links between the modes of operation of these systems. Key factors include the chromophore layout and geometry, electronic structure and optical selection rules. Mesoscopic symmetry, especially in photosynthetic pigment arrays and also in their dendrimeric mimics, is here linked to the transient establishment of excitons. The involvement of excitons in energyharvesting is nonetheless substantially compromised by local disorder. The interplay of these factors in photoactive materials design is discussed in the context of new materials for operation with intense laser light.

Magnetorheological (MR) dampers are promising to substitute traditional oil dampers because of adaptive properties of MR fluids. During vibration, significant energy is wasted due to the energy dissipation in the damper. Meanwhile, for conventional MR damping systems, extra power supply is needed. In this paper, a new energyharvester is designed in an MR damper that integrates controllable damping and energyharvesting functions into one device. The energyharvesting part of this MR damper has a unique mechanism converting linear motion to rotary motion that would be more stable and cost effective when compared to other mechanical transmissions. A Maxon motor is used as a power generator to convert the mechanical energy into electrical energy to supply power for the MR damping system. Compared to conventional approaches, there are several advantages in such an integrated device, including weight reduction, ease in installation with less maintenance. A mechanical energyharvested MR damper with linear-rotary motion converter and motion rectifier is designed, fabricated, and tested. Experimental studies on controllable damping force and harvestedenergy are performed with different transmissions. This energyharvesting MR damper would be suitable to vehicle suspensions, civil structures, and smart prostheses.

An internal resonance based broadband vibrationenergyharvester is proposed by introducing an auxiliary oscillator to the main nonlinear harvesting oscillator. Compared to conventional nonlinear energyharvesters, the natural frequencies of this two-degree-of-freedom nonlinear system can be easily adjusted to be commensurable which will result in more resonant peaks and better wideband performance. Experimental measurements and equivalent circuit simulations demonstrate that this design outperforms its linear counterpart. In addition to the open-circuit voltage, the optimal resistance to obtain the maximum power is determined. Nearly 130% increase in the bandwidth is achieved compared to the linear counterpart at an excitation level of 2 m/s2. The findings provide insight for the design of a broadband energyharvester when there is nonlinearity and internal resonance.

A novel piezoelectric energyharvesting device is presented in this paper. Different from the existing designs, the proposed apparatus is based on the principle of nonlinear energy sink (NES) in order to achieve broadband energyharvesting. First, the concept of the proposed design is described. Then the system modeling and parameter identification are addressed. The transient responses and voltage output performance of the apparatus are examined through an experimental study. The study shows that the proposed apparatus behaves similarly as the NES with the following features: initial energy dependence, 1:1 resonance, targeted energy transfer, etc. Broadband voltage output is achieved when NES is activated.

This article reports a compact wideband piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvester consisting of three proof masses and an asymmetric M-shaped cantilever. The M-shaped beam comprises a main beam and two folded and dimension varied auxiliary beams interconnected through the proof mass at the end of the main cantilever. Such an arrangement constitutes a three degree-of-freedom vibrating body, which can tune the resonant frequencies of its first three orders close enough to obtain a utility wide bandwidth. The finite element simulation results and the experimental results are well matched. The operation bandwidth comprises three adjacent voltage peaks on account of the frequency interval shortening mechanism. The result shows that the proposed piezoelectric energyharvester could be efficient and adaptive in practical vibration circumstance based on multiple resonant modes.

This article reports a compact wideband piezoelectric vibrationenergyharvester consisting of three proof masses and an asymmetric M-shaped cantilever. The M-shaped beam comprises a main beam and two folded and dimension varied auxiliary beams interconnected through the proof mass at the end of the main cantilever. Such an arrangement constitutes a three degree-of-freedom vibrating body, which can tune the resonant frequencies of its first three orders close enough to obtain a utility wide bandwidth. The finite element simulation results and the experimental results are well matched. The operation bandwidth comprises three adjacent voltage peaks on account of the frequency interval shortening mechanism. The result shows that the proposed piezoelectric energyharvester could be efficient and adaptive in practical vibration circumstance based on multiple resonant modes.

Cantilevered piezoelectric energyharvesters have been studied extensively in recent years. Numerous techniques have been investigated to achieve optimal power output. However, the extraction of electrical energy from mechanical vibration leads to a reduction of the vibration magnitude of the harvester because of the electromechanical coupling effect, and so a model considering constant vibration magnitude input is no longer valid. Thus, an energyharvesting model excited with a constant force or acceleration magnitude has been adopted to take into account the damping effect induced by the energyharvesting process. This paper extends this model to the effect of energyharvesting on the fixed host structure (mechanical to mechanical coupling). Theoretical developments are presented as a dynamic problem of an electromechanically coupled two-degree-of-freedom (TDOF) spring-mass-damper system. Then, experimental measurements and computations based on finite element modeling (FEM) are carried out to validate theoretical predictions. It is shown that the extracted power obtained from the TDOF model would reach a maximal value by tuning the mass ratio between the host structure and the harvester and optimizing the electric load. The mechanical to mechanical coupling effect due to the harvester leads to a trade-off between the mechanical energy of the host structure and the harvestedenergy. When the harvester mass to host structure mass ratio is around 10-3, the maximal power is obtained and the host structure then has a sudden displacement reduction due to the strong mechanical to mechanical coupling. Experimental measurements have been performed for a mass ratio of around 0.02, with which the harvester effect is not negligible on the host structure behavior as the host structure displacement shows a decrease of more than 3 dB. In addition, the harvested power calculated with the TDOF model is about two times less than with a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) model under

In this paper we report on the design and optimization of a novel combined vibrationenergyharvester based on the use of electrodynamic and magnetoelectric (ME) principles to increase the energy outcome of an electrodynamic harvester without significantly increasing its size. Thereby the most important aspect is the dependence of magnetic flux variation on design parameters, as is it is the decisive effect for energy conversion. Magnetic circuit form and magnetization are optimized for maximizing energy outcome. We conclude that better magnetic flux variation is reached for a magnetic circuit formed with two magnets stacked one within the other using the same magnetization. Results illustrate that the use of combined converter enables to enhance the performance of simple electrodynamic or ME converter.

In this study, an acoustic energyharvester consisting of a perforated brass plate sandwiched between two cavities is designed and fabricated for scavenging energy from wide-spectrum acoustic sources. The multi-mode resonances of the device are adjusted closely spaced over a wide range of frequencies by properly tuned acoustic coupling of the vibrating plate and the two cavities. The experimental results show that the proximity of the multiple peaks enables the harvester operating in the frequency range of 1100-1400 Hz, which provides useful leads for the realization of acoustic energy generators of practical interest.

interest where the storage capacitor can be optimized to produce almost 70% of the ideal power taken as the power harvested with synchronous converters when neglecting the power consumption associated with synchronizing control circuitry. Theoretical predictions are confirmed by measurements on an asynchronous EHC implemented with a macro-scale electrostatic converter prototype. Based on the preceding analysis, the design of a novel ultra low power electrostatic integrated energyharvesting circuit is proposed for efficient harvesting of mechanical energy. The fundamental challenges of designing reliable low power sensing circuits for charge constrained electrostatic energyharvesters with capacity to self power its controller and driver stages are addressed. Experimental results are presented for a controller design implemented in AMI 0.7muM high voltage CMOS process using a macro-scale electrostatic converter prototype. The EHC produces 1.126muW for a power investment of 417nW with combined conduction and controller losses of 450nW which is a 20-30% improvement compared to prior art on electrostatic EHCs operating under charge constrain. Inherently dual plate variable capacitors harvestenergy only during half of the mechanical cycle with the other half unutilized for energy conversion. To harvest mechanical energy over the complete mechanical vibration cycle, a low power energyharvesting circuit (EHC) that performs charge constrained synchronous energy conversion on a tri-plate variable capacitor for maximizing energy conversion is proposed. The tri-plate macro electrostatic generator with capacitor variation of 405pF to 1.15nF and 405pF to 1.07nF on two complementary adjacent capacitors is fabricated and used in the characterization of the designed EHC. The integrated circuit fabricated in AMI 0.7muM high voltage CMOS process, produces a total output power of 497nW to a 10muF reservoir capacitor from a 98Hz vibration signal. In summary, the thesis lays out the

Wireless monitoring could greatly impact the fields of structural health assessment and infrastructure asset management. A common problem to be tackled in wireless networks is the electric power supply, which is typically provided by batteries replaced periodically. A promising remedy for this issue would be to harvest ambient energy. Within this framework, the present paper proposes to harvest ambient-induced vibrations of bridge structures using a new class of piezoelectric textiles. The considered case study is an existing cable-stayed bridge located in Italy along a high-speed road that connects Rome and Naples, for which a recent monitoring campaign has allowed to record the dynamic responses of deck and cables. Vibration measurements have been first elaborated to provide a comprehensive dynamic assessment of this infrastructure. In order to enhance the electric energy that can be converted from ambient vibrations, the considered energyharvester exploits a power generator built using arrays of electrospun piezoelectric nanofibers. A finite element analysis is performed to demonstrate that such power generator is able to provide higher energy levels from recorded dynamic loading time histories than a standard piezoelectric energyharvester. Its feasibility for bridge health monitoring applications is finally discussed.

Exploiting the sporadic availability of energy by energyharvesting devices is an attractive solution to power wireless sensor nodes and many other distributed modules for much longer operation duration and much lower maintenance cost after they are deployed. MEMS energyharvesting devices exhibit unique advantageous of super-compact size, mass productivity, and easy-integration with sensors, actuators and other integrated circuits. However, MEMS vibrationenergyharvesting devices are rather difficult to be used practically due to their poor response to most of the ambient vibrations at ultra-low frequency range. In this paper, a micromachined silicon disk with sandwiched piezoelectric springs was successfully developed with resonant frequency of 15.36∼42.42 Hz and quality factor of 39∼55 for energyharvesting. Footprint size of the device was 6 mm × 6 mm, which is less than half of the piezoelectric cantilevers, while the device can scavenge reasonably high power of 0.57 μW at the acceleration of 0.1 g. The evaluation results also suggested that the device was quite sensitive as a sensor for selective monitoring of vibrations at a certain frequency.

A versatile vibrationenergyharvesting platform based on a triboelectricity is proposed and analyzed. External mechanical vibration repeats an oscillating motion of a polymer-coated metal oscillator floating inside a surrounding tube. Continuous sidewall friction at the contact interface of the oscillator induces current between the inner oscillator electrode and the outer tube electrode to convert mechanical vibrations into electrical energy. The floating oscillator-embedded triboelectric generator (FO-TEG) is applicable for both impulse excitation and sinusoidal vibration which universally exist in usual environment. For the impulse excitation, the generated current sustains and slowly decays by the residual oscillation of the floating oscillator. For the sinusoidal vibration, the output energy can be maximized by resonance oscillation. The operating frequency range can be simply optimized with high degree of freedom to satisfy various application requirements. In addition, the excellent immunity against ambient humidity is experimentally demonstrated, which stems from the inherently packaged structure of FO-TEG. The prototype device provides a peak-to-peak open-circuit voltage of 157 V and instantaneous short-circuit current of 4.6 μA, within sub-10 Hz of operating frequency. To visually demonstrate the energyharvesting behavior of FO-TEG, lighting of an array of LEDs is demonstrated using artificial vibration and human running. PMID:26553524

A versatile vibrationenergyharvesting platform based on a triboelectricity is proposed and analyzed. External mechanical vibration repeats an oscillating motion of a polymer-coated metal oscillator floating inside a surrounding tube. Continuous sidewall friction at the contact interface of the oscillator induces current between the inner oscillator electrode and the outer tube electrode to convert mechanical vibrations into electrical energy. The floating oscillator-embedded triboelectric generator (FO-TEG) is applicable for both impulse excitation and sinusoidal vibration which universally exist in usual environment. For the impulse excitation, the generated current sustains and slowly decays by the residual oscillation of the floating oscillator. For the sinusoidal vibration, the output energy can be maximized by resonance oscillation. The operating frequency range can be simply optimized with high degree of freedom to satisfy various application requirements. In addition, the excellent immunity against ambient humidity is experimentally demonstrated, which stems from the inherently packaged structure of FO-TEG. The prototype device provides a peak-to-peak open-circuit voltage of 157 V and instantaneous short-circuit current of 4.6 μA, within sub-10 Hz of operating frequency. To visually demonstrate the energyharvesting behavior of FO-TEG, lighting of an array of LEDs is demonstrated using artificial vibration and human running.

A versatile vibrationenergyharvesting platform based on a triboelectricity is proposed and analyzed. External mechanical vibration repeats an oscillating motion of a polymer-coated metal oscillator floating inside a surrounding tube. Continuous sidewall friction at the contact interface of the oscillator induces current between the inner oscillator electrode and the outer tube electrode to convert mechanical vibrations into electrical energy. The floating oscillator-embedded triboelectric generator (FO-TEG) is applicable for both impulse excitation and sinusoidal vibration which universally exist in usual environment. For the impulse excitation, the generated current sustains and slowly decays by the residual oscillation of the floating oscillator. For the sinusoidal vibration, the output energy can be maximized by resonance oscillation. The operating frequency range can be simply optimized with high degree of freedom to satisfy various application requirements. In addition, the excellent immunity against ambient humidity is experimentally demonstrated, which stems from the inherently packaged structure of FO-TEG. The prototype device provides a peak-to-peak open-circuit voltage of 157 V and instantaneous short-circuit current of 4.6 μA, within sub-10 Hz of operating frequency. To visually demonstrate the energyharvesting behavior of FO-TEG, lighting of an array of LEDs is demonstrated using artificial vibration and human running. PMID:26553524

Background Biomechanical energy harvesting–generating electricity from people during daily activities–is a promising alternative to batteries for powering increasingly sophisticated portable devices. We recently developed a wearable knee-mounted energyharvesting device that generated electricity during human walking. In this methods-focused paper, we explain the physiological principles that guided our design process and present a detailed description of our device design with an emphasis on new analyses. Methods Effectively harvestingenergy from walking requires a small lightweight device that efficiently converts intermittent, bi-directional, low speed and high torque mechanical power to electricity, and selectively engages power generation to assist muscles in performing negative mechanical work. To achieve this, our device used a one-way clutch to transmit only knee extension motions, a spur gear transmission to amplify the angular speed, a brushless DC rotary magnetic generator to convert the mechanical power into electrical power, a control system to determine when to open and close the power generation circuit based on measurements of knee angle, and a customized orthopaedic knee brace to distribute the device reaction torque over a large leg surface area. Results The device selectively engaged power generation towards the end of swing extension, assisting knee flexor muscles by producing substantial flexion torque (6.4 Nm), and efficiently converted the input mechanical power into electricity (54.6%). Consequently, six subjects walking at 1.5 m/s generated 4.8 ± 0.8 W of electrical power with only a 5.0 ± 21 W increase in metabolic cost. Conclusion Biomechanical energyharvesting is capable of generating substantial amounts of electrical power from walking with little additional user effort making future versions of this technology particularly promising for charging portable medical devices. PMID:19549313

This paper presents the methodology and challenges experienced in the microfabrication, packaging, and integration of a fixed-fixed folded spring piezoelectric energyharvester. A variety of challenges were overcome in the fabrication of the energyharvesters, such as the diagnosis and rectification of sol-gel PZT film quality and adhesion issues. A packaging and integration methodology was developed to allow for the characterizing the harvesters under a base vibration. The conditioning circuitry developed allowed for a complete energyharvesting system, consisting a harvester, a voltage doubler, a voltage regulator and a NiMH battery. A feasibility study was undertaken with the designed conditioning circuitry to determine the effect of the input parameters on the overall performance of the circuit. It was found that the maximum efficiency does not correlate to the maximum charging current supplied to the battery. The efficiency and charging current must be balanced to achieve a high output and a reasonable output current. The development of the complete energyharvesting system allows for the direct integration of the energyharvesting technology into existing power management schemes for wireless sensing. PMID:26016911

This paper presents the methodology and challenges experienced in the microfabrication, packaging, and integration of a fixed-fixed folded spring piezoelectric energyharvester. A variety of challenges were overcome in the fabrication of the energyharvesters, such as the diagnosis and rectification of sol-gel PZT film quality and adhesion issues. A packaging and integration methodology was developed to allow for the characterizing the harvesters under a base vibration. The conditioning circuitry developed allowed for a complete energyharvesting system, consisting a harvester, a voltage doubler, a voltage regulator and a NiMH battery. A feasibility study was undertaken with the designed conditioning circuitry to determine the effect of the input parameters on the overall performance of the circuit. It was found that the maximum efficiency does not correlate to the maximum charging current supplied to the battery. The efficiency and charging current must be balanced to achieve a high output and a reasonable output current. The development of the complete energyharvesting system allows for the direct integration of the energyharvesting technology into existing power management schemes for wireless sensing. PMID:26016911

The limitations posed by batteries have compelled the need to investigate energyharvesting methods to power small electronic devices that require very low operational power. Vibration based energyharvesting methods with piezoelectric transduction in particular has been shown to possess potential towards energyharvesters replacing batteries. Current piezoelectric energyharvesters exhibit considerably lower power to weight ratio or specific power when compared to batteries the harvesters seek to replace. To attain the goal of battery-less self-sustainable device operation the power to weight ratio gap between piezoelectric energyharvesters and batteries need to be bridged. In this paper the potential of integrating lightweight honeycomb structures with existing piezoelectric device configurations (bimorph) towards achieving higher specific power is investigated. It is shown in this study that at low excitation frequency ranges, replacing the solid continuous substrate of conventional bimorph with honeycomb structures of the same material results in a significant increase in power to weight ratio of the piezoelectric harvester. At higher driving frequency ranges it is shown that unlike the traditional piezoelectric bimorph with solid continuous substrate, the honeycomb substrate bimorph can preserve optimum global design parameters through manipulation of honeycomb unit cell parameters. Increased operating lifetime and design flexibility of the honeycomb core piezoelectric bimorph is demonstrated as unit cell parameters of the honeycomb structures can be manipulated to alter mass and stiffness properties of the substrate, resulting in unit cell parameter significantly influencing power generation.

An attachable electromagnetic-energy-harvester driven wireless vibration-sensing system for monitoring milling-processes and cutter-wear/breakage-conditions is demonstrated. The system includes an electromagnetic energyharvester, three single-axis Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) accelerometers, a wireless chip module, and corresponding circuits. The harvester consisting of magnets with a coil uses electromagnetic induction to harness mechanical energy produced by the rotating spindle in milling processes and consequently convert the harnessed energy to electrical output. The electrical output is rectified by the rectification circuit to power the accelerometers and wireless chip module. The harvester, circuits, accelerometer, and wireless chip are integrated as an energy-harvester driven wireless vibration-sensing system. Therefore, this completes a self-powered wireless vibration sensing system. For system testing, a numerical-controlled machining tool with various milling processes is used. According to the test results, the system is fully self-powered and able to successfully sense vibration in the milling processes. Furthermore, by analyzing the vibration signals (i.e., through analyzing the electrical outputs of the accelerometers), criteria are successfully established for the system for real-time accurate simulations of the milling-processes and cutter-conditions (such as cutter-wear conditions and cutter-breaking occurrence). Due to these results, our approach can be applied to most milling and other machining machines in factories to realize more smart machining technologies. PMID:26907297

An attachable electromagnetic-energy-harvester driven wireless vibration-sensing system for monitoring milling-processes and cutter-wear/breakage-conditions is demonstrated. The system includes an electromagnetic energyharvester, three single-axis Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) accelerometers, a wireless chip module, and corresponding circuits. The harvester consisting of magnets with a coil uses electromagnetic induction to harness mechanical energy produced by the rotating spindle in milling processes and consequently convert the harnessed energy to electrical output. The electrical output is rectified by the rectification circuit to power the accelerometers and wireless chip module. The harvester, circuits, accelerometer, and wireless chip are integrated as an energy-harvester driven wireless vibration-sensing system. Therefore, this completes a self-powered wireless vibration sensing system. For system testing, a numerical-controlled machining tool with various milling processes is used. According to the test results, the system is fully self-powered and able to successfully sense vibration in the milling processes. Furthermore, by analyzing the vibration signals (i.e., through analyzing the electrical outputs of the accelerometers), criteria are successfully established for the system for real-time accurate simulations of the milling-processes and cutter-conditions (such as cutter-wear conditions and cutter-breaking occurrence). Due to these results, our approach can be applied to most milling and other machining machines in factories to realize more smart machining technologies. PMID:26907297

Currently, wearable electronics are increasingly widely used, leading to an increasing need of portable power supply. As a clean and renewable power source, piezoelectric energyharvester can transfer mechanical energy into electric energy directly, and the energyharvester based on polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) operating in 31-mode is appropriate to harvestenergy from human motion. This paper established a series of theoretical models to predict the performance of 31-mode PVDF energyharvester. Among them, the energy storage one can predict the collected energy accurately during the operation of the harvester. Based on theoretical study and experiments investigation, two approaches to improve the energyharvesting performance have been found. Furthermore, experiment results demonstrate the high accuracies of the models, which are better than 95%. PMID:25114981

Currently, wearable electronics are increasingly widely used, leading to an increasing need of portable power supply. As a clean and renewable power source, piezoelectric energyharvester can transfer mechanical energy into electric energy directly, and the energyharvester based on polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) operating in 31-mode is appropriate to harvestenergy from human motion. This paper established a series of theoretical models to predict the performance of 31-mode PVDF energyharvester. Among them, the energy storage one can predict the collected energy accurately during the operation of the harvester. Based on theoretical study and experiments investigation, two approaches to improve the energyharvesting performance have been found. Furthermore, experiment results demonstrate the high accuracies of the models, which are better than 95%. PMID:25114981

were statistically significant factors when studying peak jet velocity. The Bimorph (˜50m/s) and the prestressed metal composite (˜45m/s) generated similar peak jet velocities but the later is the most robust of all tested actuators. In addition, an alternate input signal to the composite, a sawtooth waveform, leads to jets formed with larger peak velocities at frequencies above 15Hz. The optimized factor levels for the energyharvesting process were identified as 237.6kPa, 3.7Hz, 1MO and 12°C and the power density measured at these conditions was 24.27microW/mm3. Finally, the SJA is integrated with an energyharvesting system and the power generated is stored into a large capacitor and a rechargeable battery. After approximately six hours of operation 5V of generated voltage is stored in a 330microF capacitor with the prestressed metal composite as the harvester. It is then demonstrated that energyharvested from the inherent vibrations of a SJA can be stored for later use. Then, the system proposed in this dissertation not only improves on the efficiency of aerodynamic bodies, but also harvestsenergy that is otherwise wasted.

Micro- and nanoscale wetting phenomena have been an active area of research due to its potential for improving engineered system performance involving phase change. With the recent advancements in micro/nanofabrication techniques, structured surfaces can now be designed to allow condensing coalesced droplets to spontaneously jump off the surface due to the conversion of excess surface energy into kinetic energy. In addition to being removed at micrometric length scales (˜10 μm), jumping water droplets also attain a positive electrostatic charge (˜10-100 fC) from the hydrophobic coating/condensate interaction. In this work, we take advantage of this droplet charging to demonstrate jumping-droplet electrostatic energyharvesting. The charged droplets jump between superhydrophobic copper oxide and hydrophilic copper surfaces to create an electrostatic potential and generate power during formation of atmospheric dew. We demonstrated power densities of ˜15 pW/cm2, which, in the near term, can be improved to ˜1 μW/cm2. This work demonstrates a surface engineered platform that promises to be low cost and scalable for atmospheric energyharvesting and electric power generation.

To improve the output power of a rotational piezoelectric wind energyharvester, impact-induced resonance is proposed to enable effective excitation of the piezoelectric cantilevers' vibration modes and obtain optimum deformation, which enhances the mechanical/electrical energy transformation. The impact force is introduced by forming a piezoelectric bimorph cantilever polygon that is fixed at the circumference of the rotating fan's internal surface. Elastic balls are placed inside the polygon. When wind rotates the device, the balls strike the piezoelectric cantilevers, and thus electricity is generated by the piezoelectric effect. The impact point is carefully chosen to use the first bending mode as much as possible, and thus maximize the harvesting efficiency. The design enables each bimorph to be struck in a similar area and every bimorph is struck in that area at different moments. As a result, a relatively stable output frequency can be obtained. The output frequency can also be changed by choosing different bimorph dimensions, which will also make the device simpler and the costs lower. A prototype piezoelectric energyharvester consisting of twelve piezoelectric cantilevers was constructed. The piezoelectric cantilevers were made from phosphor bronze, the lead zirconium titanate (PZT)-based bimorph cantilever had dimensions of 47 mm × 20 mm × 0.5 mm, and the elastic balls were made from steel with a diameter of 10 mm. The optimal DC output power was 613 μW across the 20 kΩ resistor at a rotation speed of 200 r/min with an inscribed circle diameter of 31 mm.

This paper presents the analysis of a type of vibrationenergyharvester composed of an electromagnetic pendulum oscillator combined to an elastic main structure. In this study, the elastic main structure connected to the base is considered as a single degree-of-freedom (DOF) spring-mass-damper subsystem. The electromagnetic pendulum oscillator is considered as a dual-mass two-frequency subsystem, which is composed of a hollow bar with a tip winded coil and a magnetic mass with a spring located in the hollow bar. As the pendulum swings, the magnetic mass can move along the axial direction of the bar. Thus, the relative motion between the magnet and the coil induces a wire current. A mathematical model of the coupled system is established. The system dynamics a 1:2:1 internal resonance. Parametric analysis is carried out to demonstrate the effect of the excitation acceleration, excitation frequency, load resistance, and frequency tuning parameters on system performance.

In the last decade there has been an increasing attention on the use of highly- and weakly- nonlinear solitary waves in engineering and physics. These waves can form and travel in nonlinear systems such as one-dimensional chains of spherical particles. One engineering application of solitary waves is the fabrication of acoustic lenses, which are employed in a variety of fields ranging from biomedical imaging and surgery to defense systems and damage detection. In this paper we propose to couple an acoustic lens to a wafer-type lead zirconate titanate transducer (PZT) to harvestenergy from the vibration of an object tapping the lens. The lens is composed of a circle array made of chains of particles in contact with a polycarbonate material where the nonlinear waves coalesce into linear waves. The PZT located at the designed focal point converts the mechanical energy carried by the stress wave into electricity to power a load resistor. The performance of the designed harvester is compared to a conventional cantilever beam, and the experimental results show that the power generated with the nonlinear lens has the same order of magnitude of the beam.

The shift toward condition-based monitoring is a key area of research for many military, industrial, and commercial customers who want to lower the overall operating costs of capital equipment and general facilities. Assessing the health of rotating systems such as gearboxes, bearings, pumps and other actuation systems often rely on the need for continuous monitoring to capture transient signals that are evidence of events that could cause (i.e. cavitation), or be the result of (i.e. spalling), damage within a system. In some applications this can be accomplished using line powered analyzers, however for wide-spread monitoring, the use of small-scale embedded electronic systems are more desirable. In such cases the method for powering the electronics becomes a significant design factor. This work presents a multi-source energyharvesting approach meant to provide a robust power source for embedded electronics, capturing energy from vibration, thermal and light sources to operate a low-power sensor node. This paper presents the general design philosophy behind the multi-source harvesting circuit, and how it can be extended from powering electronics developed for periodic monitoring to sensing equipment capable of providing continuous condition-based monitoring.

A novel energyharvesting system and method utilizing a thermoelectric having a material exhibiting a large thermally induced strain (TIS) due to a phase transformation and a material exhibiting a stress induced electric field is introduced. A material that exhibits such a phase transformation exhibits a large increase in the coefficient of thermal expansion over an incremental temperature range (typically several degrees Kelvin). When such a material is arranged in a geometric configuration, such as, for a example, a laminate with a material that exhibits a stress induced electric field (e.g. a piezoelectric material) the thermally induced strain is converted to an electric field.

A generator for harvestingenergy from water in motion includes a sheet of a hydrophobic material, having a first side and an opposite second side, that is triboelectrically more negative than water. A first electrode sheet is disposed on the second side of the sheet of a hydrophobic material. A second electrode sheet is disposed on the second side of the sheet of a hydrophobic material and is spaced apart from the first electrode sheet. Movement of the water across the first side induces an electrical potential imbalance between the first electrode sheet and the second electrode sheet.

We review recent theoretical work on thermoelectric energyharvesting in multi-terminal quantum-dot setups. We first discuss several examples of nanoscale heat engines based on Coulomb-coupled conductors. In particular, we focus on quantum dots in the Coulomb-blockade regime, chaotic cavities and resonant tunneling through quantum dots and wells. We then turn toward quantum-dot heat engines that are driven by bosonic degrees of freedom such as phonons, magnons and microwave photons. These systems provide interesting connections to spin caloritronics and circuit quantum electrodynamics. PMID:25549281

We investigate the level of harvested power from aeroelastic vibrations for an elastically mounted wing supported by nonlinear springs. The energy is harvested by attaching a piezoelectric transducer to the plunge degree of freedom. The considered wing has a low-aspect ratio and hence three dimensional aerodynamic effects cannot be neglected. To this end, the three dimensional unsteady vortex lattice method for the prediction of the unsteady aerodynamic loads is developed. A strong coupling scheme that is based on Hamming's fourth-order predictor-corrector method and accounts for the interaction between the aerodynamic loads and the motion of the wing is employed. The effects of the electrical load resistance, nonlinear torsional spring and eccentricity between the elastic axis and the gravity axis on the level of the harvested power, pitch and plunge amplitudes are investigated for a range of operating wind speeds. The results show that there is a specific wind speed beyond which the pitch motion does not pick any further energy from the incident flow. As such, the displacement in the plunge direction grows significantly and causes enhanced energyharvesting. The results also show that the nonlinear torsional spring plays an important role in enhancing the level of the harvested power. Furthermore, the harvested power can be increased by an order of magnitude by properly choosing the eccentricity and the load resistance. This analysis is helpful in designing piezoaeroelastic energyharvesters that can operate optimally at specific wind speeds.

The goal of this project is to develop an efficient energy scavenger for converting ambient low-frequency vibrations into electrical power. In order to achieve this a novel inertial micro power generator architecture has been developed that utilizes the bi-stable motion of a mechanical mass to convert a broad range of low-frequency (< 30Hz), and large-deflection (>250 {micro}m) ambient vibrations into high-frequency electrical output energy. The generator incorporates a bi-stable mechanical structure to initiate high-frequency mechanical oscillations in an electromagnetic scavenger. This frequency up-conversion technique enhances the electromechanical coupling and increases the generated power. This architecture is called the Parametric Frequency Increased Generator (PFIG). Three generations of the device have been fabricated. It was first demonstrated using a larger bench-top prototype that had a functional volume of 3.7cm3. It generated a peak power of 558{micro}W and an average power of 39.5{micro}W at an input acceleration of 1g applied at 10 Hz. The performance of this device has still not been matched by any other reported work. It yielded the best power density and efficiency for any scavenger operating from low-frequency (<10Hz) vibrations. A second-generation device was then fabricated. It generated a peak power of 288{micro}W and an average power of 5.8{micro}W from an input acceleration of 9.8m/s{sup 2} at 10Hz. The device operates over a frequency range of 20Hz. The internal volume of the generator is 2.1cm{sup 3} (3.7cm{sup 3} including casing), half of a standard AA battery. Lastly, a piezoelectric version of the PFIG is currently being developed. This device clearly demonstrates one of the key features of the PFIG architecture, namely that it is suitable for MEMS integration, more so than resonant generators, by incorporating a brittle bulk piezoelectric ceramic. This is the first micro-scale piezoelectric generator capable of <10Hz operation. The

Galloping phenomenon has attracted extensive research attention for small-scale wind energyharvesting. In the reported literature, the dynamics and harvested power of a galloping-based energyharvesting system are usually evaluated with a resistive AC load; these characteristics might shift when a practical harvesting interface circuit is connected for extracting useful DC power. In the family of piezoelectric energyharvesting interface circuits, synchronized switching harvesting on inductor (SSHI) has demonstrated its advantage for enhancing the harvested power from existing base vibrations. This paper investigates the harvesting capability of a galloping-based wind energyharvester using SSHI interfaces, with a focus on comparing the performances of Series SSHI (S-SSHI) and Parallel SSHI (P-SSHI) with that of a standard DC interface, in terms of power at various wind speeds. The prototyped galloping-based piezoelectric energyharvester (GPEH) comprises a piezoelectric cantilever attached with a square-sectioned bluff body made of foam. Equivalent circuit model (ECM) of the GPEH is established and system-level circuit simulations with SSHI and standard interfaces are performed and validated with wind tunnel tests. The benefits of SSHI compared to standard circuit become more significant when the wind speed gets higher; while SSHI circuits lose the benefits at small wind speeds. In both experiment and simulation, the superiority of P-SSHI is confirmed while S-SSHI demands further investigation. The power output is increased by 43.75% with P-SSHI compared to the standard circuit at a wind speed of 6m/s.

Energyharvesting has become an increasingly important topic thanks to the advantages in renewability and environmental friendliness. In this paper, a comprehensive study on contemporary portable wind energyharvesters has been conducted. The electrical power generation methods of portable wind energyharvesters are surveyed in three major groups, piezoelectric-, electromagnetic-, and electrostatic-based generators. The paper also takes another view of this area by gauging the required mechanisms for trapping wind flow from ambient environment. In this regard, rotational and aeroelastic mechanisms are analyzed for the portable wind energyharvesting devices. The comparison between both mechanisms shows that the aeroelastic mechanism has promising potential in producing an energyharvester in smaller scale although how to maintain the resonator perpendicular to wind flow for collecting the maximum vibration is still a major challenge to overcome for this mechanism. Furthermore, this paper categorizes the previously published portable wind energyharvesters to macro and micro scales in terms of their physical dimensions. The power management systems are also surveyed to explore the possibility of improving energy conversion efficiency. Finally some insights and research trends are pointed out based on an overall analysis of the previously published works along the historical timeline. PMID:27438834

Energyharvesting has become an increasingly important topic thanks to the advantages in renewability and environmental friendliness. In this paper, a comprehensive study on contemporary portable wind energyharvesters has been conducted. The electrical power generation methods of portable wind energyharvesters are surveyed in three major groups, piezoelectric-, electromagnetic-, and electrostatic-based generators. The paper also takes another view of this area by gauging the required mechanisms for trapping wind flow from ambient environment. In this regard, rotational and aeroelastic mechanisms are analyzed for the portable wind energyharvesting devices. The comparison between both mechanisms shows that the aeroelastic mechanism has promising potential in producing an energyharvester in smaller scale although how to maintain the resonator perpendicular to wind flow for collecting the maximum vibration is still a major challenge to overcome for this mechanism. Furthermore, this paper categorizes the previously published portable wind energyharvesters to macro and micro scales in terms of their physical dimensions. The power management systems are also surveyed to explore the possibility of improving energy conversion efficiency. Finally some insights and research trends are pointed out based on an overall analysis of the previously published works along the historical timeline. PMID:27438834

Energyharvesting from structure vibration, human motion or environmental source has been the focus of researchers in the past few decades. This paper proposes a novel design that is suitable to harvestenergy from human motions such as dancing or physical exercise and use the device to engage young students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields and outreach activities. The energyharvester (EH) device was designed for a dominant human operational frequency range of 1-5 Hz and it can be wearable by human. We proposed to incorporate different genres of music coupled with energyharvesting technologies for motivation and energy generation. Students will learn both science and art together, since the energyharvesting requires understanding basic physical phenomena and the art enables various physical movements that imparts the largest motion transfer to the EH device. Therefore, the systems are coupled to each other. Young people follow music updates more than robotics or energyharvesting researches. Most popular videos on YouTube and VEVO are viewed more than 100 million times. Perhaps, integrating the energyharvesting research with music or physical exercise might enhance students' engagement in science, and needs investigation. A multimodal energyharvester consisting of piezoelectric and electromagnetic subsystems, which can be wearable in the leg, is proposed in this study. Three piezoelectric cantilever beams having permanent magnets at the ends are connected to a base through a slip ring. Stationary electromagnetic coils are installed in the base and connected in series. Whenever the device is driven by any oscillation parallel to the base, the unbalanced rotor will rotate generating energy across the stationary coils in the base. In another case, if the device is driven by an oscillation perpendicular to the base, a stress will be induced within the cantilever beams generating energy across the piezoelectric materials.

A new generation of wireless sensor networks that harvestenergy from environmental sources such as solar, vibration, and thermoelectric to power sensor nodes is emerging to solve the problem of energy limitation. Based on the photo-voltaic model, this research proposes a stability-aware geographic routing for reliable data transmissions in energy-harvesting wireless sensor networks (EH-WSNs) to provide a reliable routes selection method and potentially achieve an unlimited network lifetime. Specifically, the influences of link quality, represented by the estimated packet reception rate, on network performance is investigated. Simulation results show that the proposed method outperforms an energy-harvesting-aware method in terms of energy consumption, the average number of hops, and the packet delivery ratio. PMID:27187414

The rapid growth of remote, wireless, and microelectromechanical system (MEMS) devices over the past decades has motivated the development of a self-powered system that can replace traditional electrochemical batteries. Piezoelectric energyharvesters are ideal for capturing energy from mechanical vibrations in the ambient environment. Numerous studies have been made of this application of piezoelectric energy conversion; however, the narrow frequency operation band has limited its application to generate useful power. In this paper, a broadband energyharvester with an array/matrix of piezoelectric bimorphs connected by springs has been designed and analyzed based on the 1-D piezoelectric beam equations. The predicted result shows that the operational frequency band can be enlarged significantly by carefully adjusting the small end masses, length of the beam and spring stiffness. An optimal selection of the load impedance to realize the maximum power output is discussed. The results provide an important foundation for future broadband energyharvester design. PMID:24859665

A new generation of wireless sensor networks that harvestenergy from environmental sources such as solar, vibration, and thermoelectric to power sensor nodes is emerging to solve the problem of energy limitation. Based on the photo-voltaic model, this research proposes a stability-aware geographic routing for reliable data transmissions in energy-harvesting wireless sensor networks (EH-WSNs) to provide a reliable routes selection method and potentially achieve an unlimited network lifetime. Specifically, the influences of link quality, represented by the estimated packet reception rate, on network performance is investigated. Simulation results show that the proposed method outperforms an energy-harvesting-aware method in terms of energy consumption, the average number of hops, and the packet delivery ratio. PMID:27187414

Cantilever driving low frequency piezoelectric energyharvester (CANDLE) has been found as a promising structure for vibrationenergyharvesting. This paper presents the nonlinear output properties of the CANDLE to optimize the performance of the device. Simulation results of the finite element method illustrate that nonlinear contacts between the cymbal transducers and the cantilever beam are main reasons of the nonlinear output. However, high excitation acceleration of the nonlinear leap point limits the application of the device. Based on the simulation results and theory analysis, the excitation acceleration is reduced to 30 m/s2 by increasing the proof mass.

Ambient energyharvesting is also known as energy scavenging or power harvesting, and it is the process where energy is obtained from the environment. A variety of techniques are available for energy scavenging, including solar and wind powers, ocean waves, piezoelectricity, thermoelectricity, and physical motions. For example, some systems…

Pneumatic tires are critical components in mobile systems that are widely used in our lives for passenger and goods transportation. Wheel/ground interactions in these systems play an extremely important role for not only system design and efficiency but also safe operation. However, fully understanding wheel/ground interactions is challenging because of high complexity of such interactions and the lack of in situ sensors. In this paper, we present the development of a tire tread deformation sensor and energyharvester for real-time tire monitoring and control. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) based micro-sensor is designed and fabricated to embed inside the tire tread and to measure the tread deformation. We also present a cantilever array based energyharvester that takes advantages of the mechanical bandpass filter concept. The harvester design is able to have a natural frequency band that can be used to harvestenergy from varying-frequency vibrational sources. The energyharvester is also built using with new single crystal relaxor ferroelectric material (1 - \\Vkgr)Pb(Mg 1/3Nb 2/3)O 3-\\Vkgr PbTiO 3 (PMN-PT) and interdigited (IDT) electrodes that can perform the energy conversion more efficiently. Some preliminary experiment results show that the performance of the sensor and the energyharvester is promising.

Currently, most vibrationalenergyharvesters have rigid and resonant structures to scavenge kinetic energy from periodic motion in specific directions. However, in some situations the motion is random in amplitude, frequency, and direction; or the targeted energy sources apply direct deformation or displacement to the harvesters. In these applications, flexible energyharvesters that are light, flat, and conformable to arbitrary 3D surfaces of the sources are desired to scavenge the energy from device deformation, rather than the motion of a moving mass. Therefore we propose and demonstrate a PDMS-based flexible energyharvester with Parylene-C electret that can be attached to deformable surfaces. Furthermore, copper mesh is embedded in the flexible electrodes for robust electrode metallization as compared with traditional sputtered metal thin films. The fabricated harvesters achieved net output power of 2.2 μW, area power density of 2.2 μW cm-2, and volume power density of 22 μW cm-3 at the maximum test frequency of 20 Hz. Power generation by finger tapping and bending was demonstrated. Such harvesters have the potential for wearable and implantable electronic applications.

Sufficient power supply to run GPS machinery and transmit data on a long-term basis remains to be the key challenge for wildlife tracking technology. Traditional way of replacing battery periodically is not only time and money consuming but also dangerous to live-trapping wild animals. In this paper, an innovative wildlife tracking device with multi-source energyharvester with advantage of high efficiency and reliability is investigated and developed. This multi-source energyharvester entails a solar energyharvester and an innovative rotational electromagnetic energyharvester is mounted on the "wildlife tracking collar" which will remarkably extend the duration of wild life tracking. A feedforward and feedback control of DC-DC converter circuit is adopted to passively realize the Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) logic for the solar energyharvester. The rotational electromagnetic energyharvester can mechanically rectify the irregular bidirectional motion into unidirectional motion has been modeled and demonstrated.